ARGENTINE FOOTBALL STAR Lionel Messi has sent two jerseys to the five-year-old Afghan boy who became an Internet sensation last month when he was pictured wearing a plastic bag with “Messi” scrawled on it in marker pen.
Murtaza Ahmadi travelled with his family from eastern Ghazni province to Kabul to receive the gifts sent by Messi through UNICEF, where he is a goodwill ambassador.
“Murtaza couldn’t stop smiling. He kept repeating: I love Messi,” UNICEF Afghanistan spokesman Denise Shepherd-Johnson told AFP.
Messi autographed the jerseys, writing “With much love” in Spanish on them, and added a football to the treasure trove, UNICEF said.
Purchasing a Messi jersey was beyond the means of Murtaza’s poor family, members of the persecuted ethnic Hazara minority living in volatile Ghazni, near Kabul.
His elder brother Homayoun, 15, improvised the blue-and-white-striped plastic shirt with Messi’s name scrawled in black marker, and posted the photos of Murtaza wearing it on Facebook in mid-January.
The image touched a chord with football fans around the world, and earned Murtaza the sobriquet “little Messi” on social media.
The Afghan Football Federation had said Messi was in contact with them to arrange a meeting with Murtaza as soon as possible, with the Spanish embassy in Kabul telling AFP it would do whatever possible to facilitate.
But a source close to Messi’s entourage said earlier this month they could neither confirm nor deny the speculation regarding a possible meeting.
Setting up a meeting in Afghanistan, in the grip of a fierce Taliban insurgency, is fraught with security challenges but Murtaza is eager to meet his hero.
“I want to meet Messi. I like him,” he said, proudly dribbling his new ball across a dusty field in Kabul while swimming in one of his new jerseys, which was much too big for him.
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
