Murtaza Ahmadi is an Afghan boy who, unintentionally, in 2016 when he was five his image went around the world. His older brother posted a photo of himself on Facebook in which little Murtaza wore a T-shirt of his idol, Lionel Messi, but it was not a common shirt, it was an improvisation made with a plastic bag with the name Messi and the number 10 written with a marker. From there his life changed to hell.
According to Bleacher Report, the life of Murtaza Ahmadi who is now nine years old took a 180 degree turn after the publication of this photo, months later Messi was able to find him and invited him to meet him, the appointment took place in Qatar, Murtaza accompanied by his father traveled there to meet Messi in a friendly match against Barcelona.
The images of the meeting went viral again, it was the realization of a dream, Murtaza accompanied his idol to the track and for a long time did not want to separate from him. Then he had to go home with nothing but memories, but nothing was the same again, from there his family began receiving threats from the Taliban.
“Militants in the region were calling and saying, ‘You have become rich, pay the money you received from Messi or we will take your son“, Assured his mother Shafiqa, in 2018.
After meeting Messi the Ahmadi family believed they would receive some form of financial support or perhaps have the opportunity to migrate and take refuge in Europe, As did CR7, who on his way through Real Madrid helped a Syrian child receive refuge in Spain for himself and his family, however, little Murtaza did not receive “a single rupee”, assures his mother.
“When we went to Doha to meet Messi we thought he would be like Ronaldo, We thought he could do something, not for me, but for Murtaza who is his big fan, though he did nothing for Murtaza, compared to what Ronaldo could have done“, Detailed Arif Ahmadi, father of a child.
After receiving multiple threats, the family decided to remove Murtaza from his home province and take him to live in the Afghan capital, Kabul, far away from his home so that he could live with his uncles. here the little Murtaza changed the freedom of field, where it left to play soccer, by an urban and closed surroundings, where it suffered by the fact of not being able to make friendly and to stay away of his parents and brother. On top of that, Kabul is a very insecure city that frequently suffers terrorist attacks.
Not even in the capital do they feel safe. They are afraid that the Taliban will try to capture Murtaza because of the fame that his meeting with Messi gave him.. They say extremists are looking for him. “They’ve said that if they catch him, they’ll cut him to pieces”, Has declared horrified the mother, Shafiqa, according to report the newspaper the Country.
This insecurity led his parents to make the decision to return Murtaza to his home, where at the moment it resides today with 9 years of age, and in spite of the forgetfulness and the disappointment that feels its family by the Argentine star, Murtaza confesses to still being a big fan of Leo Messi.
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