Afghan Boy in Plastic Messi Jersey Becomes Internet Star

Jaghori, Afghanistan 21 Rabiul Akhir 1437/31 January 2016 (MINA) – Image of a five year old boy wearing Lionel Messi ‘jersey’ made of a plastic bag had gone viral on social media recently.

Murtaza Ahmadi idolises the Argentine soccer star but a jersey of his favourite player is beyond the means of his poor family in rural Ghazni province southwest of Kabul.

His elder brother Homayoun, 15, made him the plastic shirt with Messi’s named scrawled in marker pen and posted the photos of Murtaza wearing it on Facebook two weeks ago.

The pictures of Murtaza were shared on a Facebook account of Hamayon who is believed to his older brother.

Since then, Murtaza’s pictures were shared by many on the social media.

The BBC Trending reported that Murtaza’s uncle, Azim Ahmadi, who lives in Australia, claimed that the boy is his nephew.

He later called Murtaza’s father Arif who then confirmed that his son is the boy the social media has been buzzing about, Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) reported, quoting Astroawani.com.

“He really loves Messi and football. It is not possible for us to buy a jersey for him. Because I am a simple farmer.  “So the kid decided to use the plastic instead,” Arif said.

Arif said his younger son also hopes to meet Messi one day and wants to be a good football player like him in the future.  (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)