Afghan 'Plastic Bag Boy' Excited About Meeting Messi

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On Monday, the Afghan Football Federation (AFF) confirmed that Ahmadi will now get a chance to meet his football hero.

"We've been contacted by Messi's management team and they have expressed their interest in meeting the boy," AFF spokesman, Syed Ali Kazemi, told Al Jazeera.

"We are doing our best to coordinate their meeting. The date and the venue is still not confirmed yet, but there are chances of Ahmadi flying to Spain to meet his idol (Messi)."

Kazemi added that "the passion that Murtaza carries for football, we will do everything in our capacity to train him to be a part of our Afghanistan football team".
Murtaza's brother Homayoun was the one who made the improvised shirt - that perfectly fit the little boy - and scribbled Messi's name and the No 10 in it.

"Murtaza found a plastic bag and ran towards me asking me to make a jersey out of it for him," 15-year-old Homayoun told Al Jazeera.

"We can't even imagine buying the original Messi jersey. We just can't afford it so, to make my brother happy, I made a shirt out of that plastic bag for him."

The boy’s father, Mohammad Arif Ahmadi, said that he has been overwhelmed by the response to the photographs.

"We did not expect that we would get this kind of support from everyone. People from all over the world have been calling me to help get Murtaza a jersey and a football," he told Al Jazeera.

"Murtaza can't hold it. He is so excited by the news of meeting Messi. We don't know when is it going to happen, but we are humbled by the response we got."

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