Five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi idolises
Messi but a jersey of his favourite player is beyond the means of his
poor family in the volatile province of Ghazni near Kabul.
His
elder brother Homayoun, 15, 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.
Jorge Messi,
Lionel’s father, told AFP on Saturday that the footballer was aware of
the photos that made waves on social media and "wants to do something"
for his young fan.
The
Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) on Monday said Messi was keen to
meet Murtaza as soon as possible, though no date or venue has so far
been finalised.
"Messi has been in communication with the
federation to set up a meeting with the young boy," AFF spokesman Sayed
Ali Kazemi told AFP.
"We are working to see whether Messi will
come to Afghanistan or the five-year-old will travel to Spain or they
will meet in a third country."
The Spanish embassy in Kabul told AFP it would do whatever possible to facilitate a meeting in a European destination. Murtaza’s
father, a poor farmer in Ghazni’s Jaghori district, said he could not
afford to buy him a replica jersey, and that Murtaza only had a punctured
ball to play with.
Photos of Murtaza wearing a plastic striped bag with improvised Messi
10 written on it has
touched a chord with football fans around the world.
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