The search for this five-year-old child spread around the world. Now, Lionel Messi’s fan, Murtaza Ahmadi, may be one step closer to meeting him.

This boy has been found. He was seen wearing a striped plastic bag with the football player’s name and number written on it in blue ink.

He said that he would be “upset” if Messi didn’t meet his son “because he really loves him.”

Arif said the five-year-old’s experience was “one of the happiest moments” of his life.

Yet, Arif said that Murtaza didn’t seem to mind because he had been wearing one of the shirts and playing football with the football since the gifts got there.

“I love Messi, and my shirt says Messi loves me,” UNICEF quoted Murtaza as saying.

 

Earlier this month, the Afghan Football Federation told CNN that Messi’s charitable foundation was trying to set up a meeting between the seven-time World Player of the Year and Murtaza.

To CNN from his family’s farm in Jaghori, southwest of Kabul, Murtaza said, “Everyone in the world now knows me.” He was talking about how he became famous on the internet. 

News stories about his son from all over the world had “inspired me,” and his dad’s dream was “to have a football stadium in our district.”

He told his son, “We lived in a poor village far from the city, and it was impossible for me to get him the shirt.” That’s how the plastic bag jersey came to be.

 

“He cried and begged for the shirt for days until his brother Hamayon helped him make one out of the plastic bag to make him happy,” Arif said. He stopped crying after putting on that shirt made of trash bags.

In the middle of April, a Messi fan account on Twitter shared a picture of the boy wearing the plastic bag Messi shirt. This made people start looking for him.

 

The picture only showed his back and showed a small boy with a buzz cut wearing a brown knit sweater. It had the words “A kid in Iraq…” and an emoji of a heartbreaking next to it.

It turned out to be a lie about Iraq. The person on Twitter who said the boy was from the city of Dohuk in northern Iraq later said he had made that up.

An Iraqi TV station said they had found the boy in Dohuk, but this was also not true.

“I am glad he is well-known now,” Arif said. “He’s thrilled that his picture is now everywhere.” His long-term goals are to go to school and play sports.

In its 10th year, the program has helped more than a million children in Angola, Brazil, China, Ghana, Malawi, South Africa, and Swaziland. As part of the new four-year deal, Barcelona will increase its yearly donation from €1.5 million (£1.65 million) to €2 million.