Murtaza's horror story: The boy who went viral with plastic Lionel Messi shirt

Posted Wednesday, February 03, 2021 by Marca.com

Murtaza Ahmadi rose to fame in January 2016, when at the age of five the small Afghan child was the subject of a picture uploaded on Facebook by his brother, with Murtaza wearing a plastic bag with Lionel Messi's name written on it.

The story hit all media outlets and it reached the conscious of international organisations, furthermore Messi himself heard about it and there was a meeting between the pair, which saw hugs, photos and joy.

However, that is where the nightmare began for the family, as detailed in a story published by Bleacher Report on Tuesday.

The plastic t-shirt incident would eventually lead to threats, an attempted escape, fear of kidnapping and finally the exile of the child in Kabul, away from his loved ones.

"I heard the rumour that Messi wanted to meet Murtaza," Hamayoun the boy's brother, recalls how Messi actually came into their lives.

"Soon two boxes from people close to Messi arrived at the house.

"When I first saw the boxers I thought one would have toys for Murtaza and the other dollars, but no, a ball and a shirt," explained Murtaza's father, Arif.

This is where the problem started, people began to believe that Messi had sent a large amount of money to the Ahmadi family and people began essentially stalking the family home.

A letter was sent to the family from the Taliban, threatening to capture the entire family, and they then filed an asylum request which was turned down.

"We thought that by going to Doha to meet Messi, he would maybe do like Ronaldo," Arif added

"We went to Doha so that Messi could do something for him, but he did nothing for Murtaza."

Murtaza then found everyday life difficult, with people believing Messi had given him money, he then stopped going to school, stopped leaving the house and stopped playing football.

His family sent him and his uncle to Kabul, but fears of kidnapping were compounded by the increase of terror attacks within the Afghan capital city.

When asked whether or not he regretted ever wearing the shirt, Murtaza remained loyal to Messi.

"There were a lot of explosions everywhere, boom," Murtaza added.

"I didn't have a place to play, I didn't have any friends. I would wear the shirt again, because I adore Messi."

Just a few months ago, Murtaza was able to return home and re-join his family.