Afghan boy Murtaza Ahmadi has finally received a real Messi shirt

Murtaza Ahmadi, a little Afghan boy who wore a blue-and-white plastic bag representing the famous stripes of the Argentinian football jersey, can now play showing off his brand-new original shirt, signed by Messi.

Murtaza Ahmadi is a 5-year-old Afghan boy, lives with his family in the Eastern province of Ghazni, Afghanistan, and is famous for being the biggest fan of Messi, Argentinian football player at Barcelona and crowned FIFA Player of the Year – Ballon d’Or five times.

One day, while he was playing wearing his striped plastic bag shirt with ‘Messi’ and the number ’10’ penned on the back, his brother, Hamayon, took a picture of him and posted it on Facebook. That photo became a hit in just a few hours reaching Barcelona, Spain, and Leo Messi’s social network profiles.

 

  Messi thus tried to reach out to the kid, thanks to the support of UNICEF – he is UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2011 and carried out many activities aimed at providing kids with aids and resources in developing countries. Initially, many claimed Murtaza was a Kurdish kid of Iraq, but thanks to the help of his uncle Azim, emigrated to Australia long before, UNICEF staff managed to contact his father.  

Today Murtaza Ahmadi can proudly show off new signed jerseys and a football he received from UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador…

Posted by UNICEF on Jueves, 25 de febrero de 2016

 

 

Murtaza now plays with an original, autographed Messi shirt. “I love Messi and my shirt says Messi loves me,” said the boy after receiving the jersey directly in the Afghan district of Jaghori, thanks to UNICEF. The picture of the proud boy was posted on the organisation’s official Facebook page, but there might be other good news for him as Messi said he would like to meet Murtaza personally, maybe during one of his next journeys as Ambassador.

 

This year UNICEF is appealing for 2.8 billion dollars to reach 43 million children.

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