Playing with his new Messi signed football whilst wearing the Argentine national colours, also signed by his favourite player, Murtaza was hopeful he might meet him one day.
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The boy was photographed on Thursday wearing Messi’s signed Argentina shirt.
Messi is a soccer player from Argentina who plays for the Barcelona professional team in Spain.
Murtaza Ahmadi – who went viral earlier this year when he was pictured wearing a makeshift Messi jersey out of a plastic bag – is now a proud owner of not one, but two signed jerseys from the football superstar.
It said “with much love”, in Spanish.
He declared: ‘I love Messi and my shirt says Messi loves me’.
The boy’s picture went viral in mid-January and a social media campaign was launched to identify who he was. Shortly after, the Ahmadi family received notice that Messi was interested in meeting the little boy.
“I want to meet Messi”.
Murtuza’s father said that his son is “very happy to receive the autographed jersey, but he wants to meet him face-to-face”.
Murtaza’s father, a poor farmer in Ghazni’s Jaghori district, admitted he could not afford to buy him a replica jersey. “I like him”, he casually said to reporters while taking a break from dribbling his brand new football.
Many people say Messi is the best player in the world.
UNICEF helped facilitate the shirt delivery as Lionel Messi is a goodwill ambassador for the organisation.
With a photo that adorable, it’s no surprise that the Afghanistan Football Federation soon got word of the situation. “Like so many other children, he has the same right to thrive, play, and practice sports”.
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Meanwhile, Messi’s Barcelona team mate, Neymar, has reportedly agreed a new five-year-deal with the Catalans to put to bed talks about possible future move to rivals Real Madrid.
