A little over three years ago, a small boy by the name of Murtaza Ahmadi from Afghanistan caught the eye of the world and a picture with him wearing a makeshift Messi jersey, a blue-and-white-striped plastic bag with Messi's name and number written on the back, went viral.
Ahmadi caught the attention of his role model Messi, who promptly sent him two autographed jerseys and also invited him to meet the squad when they were playing a friendly match in Qatar.
But instead of the spotlight making conditions better for Ahmadi and his family, things took a turn for the worse.
According to Shafiqa, Ahmadi’s mother, the meeting with Messi was where all the trouble started as terror outfits reportedly believed that Ahmadi got financial assistance from the Argentine superstar.
“From the day Murtaza became famous, life became difficult for our family, not only the Taliban, but some other groups also started thinking that Messi might have given him a lot of money. We stopped sending him to school, and we were being threatened all the time,” Shafiqa, told CNN.
Ahmadi’s family has had to leave their native region in Jaghori in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province after Taliban started demanding money from them. The family moved to Kabul, but that did not stop the terrorist outfits from continuing to threaten them.
“The Taliban were killing our relatives and they were searching houses. They would stop cars and kill their passengers, searching houses and killing people,” said Ahmadi.
Ahmadi, who met Messi when Barcelona were in Qatar, misses playing football.
“We were not allowed to play football by the Taliban or even go out of the house. We used to hear the sound of heavy machine guns, and Kalashnikovs, and rockets at home. We also heard people screaming,” Ahmadi said.
In such troubled times, Shafiqa has once again appealed to the Argentine superstar for help.
"I would like Messi to help Murtaza, help us to get out of Afghanistan so that Murtaza can have a better future," Shafiqa requested.
Ahmadi echoed his mother’s appeal, “When I was in my hometown, I was not able to wear my Messi jersey because I was afraid someone will hurt me. I want to be taken from this country because there is fighting in here. I want to become a football player like Messi and play with Messi."
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