It was an image that touched the hearts of millions: A five-year-old Afghan boy wearing a blue-and-white striped plastic bag to emulate the colors of the Argentinian team with ‘Messi’ and a number 10 drawn on with pen.
Now, nearly a year later, Murtaza Ahmadi has finally met his idol. The pair met in Doha, Qatar yesterday before Barcelona’s match, according to Qatar's 2022 World Cup organizing committee.
Murtaza reportedly made a special trip from Afghanistan to Qatar, where Messi was with his Barcelona team-mates to play a friendly match against Al Ahli.
In a meeting arranged by the Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organizing committee, Messi held hands with Murtaza at the team hotel before picking up the boy and posing for photographs. Murtaza was wearing a Barcelona shirt.
Murtaza, who is now aged six, walked out onto the field with the five-time world player of the year before Tuesday's match.
According to ABC News, Ahmadi, who comes from the Jaghori district, in the eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan, was forced to flee the country to Pakistan in May.
Recall, the boy became an internet sensation early this year when pictures of him playing near his home in eastern Ghazni province were widely circulated. They showed him wearing a plastic bag – in blue-and-white stripes, like the Argentina national team shirt – with Messi and the number 10 written in black marker.
Murtaza was finally identified as the boy in the picture after his uncle, Azim Ahmadi, an Afghan living in Australia, put BBC Trending in touch with his brother, Arif – the young devoted Messi fan's father.
A few weeks later, Messi sent signed Barcelona and Argentina jerseys to Murtaza.
ABC News reports the meeting between Messi and Murtaza comes at a time when Qatar is introducing long-expected reforms to policies governing its vast foreign-labor force, who labor and human rights activists say are open to abuse by the current system.
Qatar says it is abolishing the “kafala” sponsorship system that binds workers to their employer.
Rights groups say the changes fall far short of what is needed to protect the multitudes of mostly Asian low-wage workers transforming the tiny country.
