Lionel Messi meets young Afghan fan who went viral for 'plastic shirt'
A six-year-old Afghan boy, who became an Internet sensation after photos of him wearing an improvised Lionel Messi shirt made from a plastic bag early this year, finally met his soccer idol on Tuesday.
Back in January, photos of then five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi, who was sporting a shirt from a blue-and-white striped plastic bag with Barcelona and Messi's name and number handwritten on the back, became viral. He was quickly identified and tracked down to his hometown of Jaghori, southwest of Kabul.
The meeting between Ahmadi and the soccer superstar took place in Doha, Qatar, where Messi and the rest of the Barcelona team participated in an exhibition match against Al-Ahli of Saudi Arabia. The Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee posted a series of photos and videos of the meeting on its Twitter account.
At the exhibition match, Ahmadi walked the five-time World Player of the Year to the field and posed with Barcelona for the team photograph. He also planted the ball on the center circle but refused to get off the field and instead ran a few yards to get to Messi's side. The referee had to carry the grinning boy back to the pitch.
When the story first came out, Ahmadi was quoted by AFP news agency saying, "I love Messi, he plays well, the shirt was made by my brother and I like it very much." The young Messi fan also said, "I want to be like Messi, when I grow up."
Prior to meeting his football superhero in person, Ahmadi first received two autographed shirts and a football with Messi's signature on it from volunteers at United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Ahmadi and his family have since moved to Pakistan after receiving threats, as shared by Ahmadi's father Arif to CNN. According to Arif, they had been receiving "20-30 unknown threatening calls in Afghanistan asking why I'm teaching my kid about football and not teaching him about the Quran."
