Boy in plastic-bag Messi shirt finally gets to meet his hero
Youngster walks on to pitch with striker at a match in Qatar
It was an image that touched the hearts of millions. A 6-year-old Afghan boy wearing an improvised Lionel Messi shirt made from a blue-and-white striped plastic bag.
The picture, posted in January, went viral and after an online search the youngster was identified as Murtaza Ahmadi from Ghazni province in rural eastern Afghanistan.
A few weeks later, Messi sent signed Barcelona and Argentina jerseys to Murtaza.
Now, nearly a year later, Murtaza has met his idol.
The youngster travelled to Qatar, where Barcelona was playing a friendly against Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli on Tuesday.
He was taken to the team hotel where he finally got to spend time with his hero – this time wearing an official Barcelona jersey, according to Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organising committee.
“I’m very happy to have met my hero,” said Murtaza. “It is a dream for me.”
Murtaza also walked out with Messi on to the pitch at the start of the friendly. Murtaza’s father, Mohammad Arif Ahmadi, said in May that the family had been forced to leave their home in Ghazni province amid constant telephone threats and fears that Murtaza would be kidnapped because of the online interest in him. “Life became a misery for us,” said the father at the time, speaking in the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the family had settled.