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Associated Press

It was an image that touched the hearts of millions: A six-year-old Afghan boy wearing an improvised Lionel Messi jersey made from a plastic bag.
Now, nearly a year later, Murtaza Ahmadi has finally met his idol.
Murtaza made a special trip from Afghanistan to Qatar, where Messi was with his Barcelona teammates to play a friendly match against Al Ahli on Tuesday.
Watch: Lionel Messi’s new number one fan


In a meeting arranged by the organising committee of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Messi held hands with Murtaza at the team hotel before picking up the boy and posing for photographs. Murtaza was wearing a Barcelona jersey.
“I’m very happy to have met my hero. It is a dream for me,” said Murtaza.

Murtaza walked out on to the field with the five-time world player of the year before Tuesday’s match.
The boy became an internet sensation early this year when pictures of him playing near his home in eastern Ghazni province were widely circulated. They showed him wearing a plastic bag – in blue-and-white stripes, like the Argentina national team jersey – with Messi and the No. 10 written in black marker.

A few weeks later, Messi sent signed Barcelona and Argentina jerseys to Murtaza.
Murtaza’s father, Mohammad Arif Ahmadi, said in May that the family was forced to leave Afghanistan amid constant telephone threats and fears that Murtaza would be kidnapped because of his sudden notoriety.
“Life became a misery for us,” said the father at the time, speaking from the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the family had settled.

The meeting between Messi and Murtaza comes at a time when Qatar is introducing long-expected reforms to policies governing its vast foreign-labour force, who labour and human rights activists say are open to abuse by the current system.
Qatar says it is abolishing the “kafala” sponsorship system that binds workers to their employer. Rights groups say the changes fall far short of what is needed to protect the multitudes of mostly Asian low-wage workers transforming the tiny country.


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Lionel Messi

Afghan boy who touched hearts with homemade Lionel Messi jersey finally gets to meet his idol

FC Barcelona Lionel Messi (L) holds the hands of Afghan boy Murtaza Ahmadi . / AFP PHOTO / KARIM JAAFAR

AFP PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2016 In this photograph taken on January 29, 2016, Afghan boy and Lionel Messi fan Murtaza Ahmadi, 5, wears a plastic bag jersey as he plays football in Jaghori district of Ghazni province. A five-year-old Afghan boy has become an internet star after pictures went viral of him wearing an Argentina football shirt made out of a plastic bag, complete with his hero Lionel Messi's name. AFP PHOTO / AFP PHOTO / STR

(161214) -- DOHA, Dec. 14, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Afghan boy Murtaza Ahmadi (L) holds the hand of Barcelona's Lionel Messi on the pitch before the start of a friendly football match against Al-Ahli Saudi in Doha, capital of Qatar, Dec. 13, 2016. Ahmadi attracted worldwide attention with photographs wearing a plastic bag in blue and white with Messi's name on it. (Xinhua/Nikku)

FC Barcelona Lionel Messi (L) and Neymar stand next to Afghan boy Murtaza Ahmadi on the pitch before the start of a friendly football match against Saudi Arabia's Al-Ahli FC on December 13, 2016 in the Qatari capital Doha. Barcelona play Saudi champions Al-Ahli in a friendly in Doha, the Spanish club's last major obligation of its four year shirt sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways. / AFP PHOTO / KARIM JAAFAR

Sport

Football

Six-year-old touched hearts with homemade jersey made from plastic bag


Afghan boy who touched hearts with homemade Lionel Messi jersey finally gets to meet his idol

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Six-year-old touched hearts with homemade jersey made from plastic bag

Six-year-old touched hearts with homemade jersey made from plastic bag