WEB CHUTNEY

Five-year-old Afghan boy Murtaza Ahmadi proved himself as a real Lionel Messi fan by wearing a plastic bag jersey to resemble the Barcelona football player.

Murtaza Ahmadi belongs to a poor family, he could not afford to buy a jersey of his favourite player, so he decided to make a plastic bag jersey.

Murtaza’s elder brother Homayoun, 15, helped him out to fulfill his wish. He made him a blue-and-white-striped plastic shirt made out of a plastic grocery bag with Messi’s named scrawled in marker pen and posted the photos of Murtaza wearing it on Facebook in mid-January.

Jorge Messi, Lionel’s father, told AFP on Saturday that the footballer was aware of the photos that made waves on social media and “wants to do something” for his young fan.

The Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) on Monday said Messi was keen to meet Murtaza as soon as possible.

“Messi has been in communication with the federation to set up a meeting with the young boy,” AFF spokesman Sayed Ali Kazemi told AFP.

“We are working to see whether Messi will come to Afghanistan or the five-year-old will travel to Spain or they will meet in a third country.”

No details were given on when or where the meeting could take place.