Messi’s fan wearing plastic found in Afghanistan

A photo of a five-year-old kid from Afghanistan has been doing the rounds in internet, in which he can be seen wearing a blue and white striped Argentina shirt made out of a plastic grocery bag, with the Barcelona legend Lionel Messi’s name and jersey number on it.

The child, who has become known as “Messi’s biggest fan” after his image appeared on Turkish fan blogs, has been reportedly identified as five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi, the son of a poor farmer living in Jaghori District in the eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.

“This little kid really loves Messi and football, When he suddenly wakes up in the middle of the night, he starts crying that he wants to go to Messi” his father, Arif Ahmadi, said from the family’s farm in Jaghori, south-west of Kabul.

“It is not possible for us to buy [a jersey] for him. Because I am a simple farmer. So the kids decided to use the plastic.”

Barcelona superstar Messi was so moved by the image he wanted to meet him to give him a real football shirt belonging to his idol.

The Leo Messi fan account tweeted that they’d received a direct message from Leo’s team. “They want to know who this kid is so that Leo can arrange something for him.”

While it may be tough to meet him in person, here’s hoping that Messi is told about this little kid half a world away and he sends him one of his actual shirts, just so we can see that smile widen a little bit more.