His elder brother Homayoun, 15, had made him the blue-and-white-striped plastic shirt with Messi’s named scrawled in marker pen and posted the photos of Murtaza wearing it on Facebook in mid-January.
Advertisement
The family of a five-year-old Afghan boy who received autographed shirts from his football hero, Lionel Messi, has been forced to leave Afghanistan after constant telephone threats, the boy’s father said.
Now, the child’s father, Mohammad Arif Ahmadi, told the Associated Press since his son was gifted the shirt, “life became a misery for us”.
A UNHCR spokesman in Quetta confirmed the family had applied for emigration and said the agency was investigating their application.
Ahmadi said the phone calls by unknown people began as the media spotlight turned on his five-year-old son.
“Unfortunately this newfound fame that Murtaza has gotten from being an internet sensation, from being sent those signed jerseys and the ball by Messi himself, has also brought about some unfortunate development”, says the BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil in Islamabad. The father even though it could be criminal gangs thinking the family had money amid the boy’s worldwide popularity.
While Ahmadi’s father was initially unsure about who was behind the phone calls, he realized it was the insurgent group after being tipped off by a driver who delivered a letter to the family.
In his new home, Quetta, Pakistan, a determined Murtaza faced a TV camera and said, “Messi, you know how much I like you”.
After the fall of the Taliban, sports became popular again.
The Afghan Football Federation had promised to help him meet Messi, but the pledge has not been honoured so far.
Advertisement
The boy, who captured the world’s heart with his plastic Messi jersey, still hopes to meet his hero one day.
