Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has admirers all over the world. The latest is a five-year old, incredibly adorable boy from a distant town in Afghanistan.
Pictures of the boy wearing a plastic makeshift blue-striped jersey with "Messi" inscribed on it caught the attention of the Internet a few weeks. It went viral as football fans all over joined hands to track down the "Atomic Flea's" latest fan.
At first, it was thought that the boy in the picture was from Iraq's Kurdistan, but when Azim Ahmadi, a refugee in Australia, posted his nephew's photos, the mystery was solved. The boy in the makeshift Messi jersey was Ahmad's nephew, Murtaza Ahmadi, the son of a farmer who lives in the Afghan town of Jaghori.
His father Mohammad Arif Ahmadi said that his son was "crazy" about Messi but they were too poor to buy him a proper Messi jersey. So, his elder son Homayoun made a makeshift jersey for his younger brother from a blue and white striped plastic bag.
A heart-warming story, but it could get even better. The latest reports indicate that Murtaza's dream of meeting the Argentinian superstar might come true – Messi is reportedly trying to arrange an meeting with his five-year old fan.
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