Murtaza Ahmadi, a 5-year-old boy from an impoverished Afghan village, received the new signed football jersey from Argentine superstar Lionel Messi.
The world has shown that good things do happen. Murtaza Ahmadi gained fame on the Internet after he was photographed wearing a jersey made out of a plastic bag resembling the shirt of football superstar Messi.
When the world saw Murtaza’s picture it had a clear message — the boy’s parents live in a poor Afghan community and have no opportunity to get him a real football jersey. So Murtaza got a white and blue striped plastic bag resembling the Argentinian national team’s colors and made himself a jersey, writing the name “Messi” and the number “10” on the plastic bag.
People from all over the world noticed the picture and began sharing it. Soon the picture with the boy wearing a plastic bag jersey went viral, catching the eye of Messi himself, who besides scoring a ton of goals happens to be a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Lionel knew what he had to do, scoring a brand new jersey of the Argentinian national team with his own name penned on the back. Just like Murtaza wanted, making the little boy’s dream come true.”I love Messi and my shirt says Messi loves me,” 5-year-old Murtaza said after putting on his brand new signed jersey, according to UNICEF’s Facebook page.
Earlier this month, it was reported that after Murtaza’s picture went viral on the Internet, the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) contacted the official representatives of Messi, trying to set up a meeting between the football star and his little fan from rural Afghanistan.