'Messi's biggest fan' found: Kid wearing plastic Leo Messi jersey is a five-year-old from Afghanistan

Remember the kid wearing a plastic-bag Leo Messi jersey whose image image went viral on Twitter? He’s been found.

It turns out that the little boy, who was initially reported to be from Iraq, is actually from Afghanistan.

According to a report in the BBC , the boy, now being called as ‘Messi’s biggest fan’ is five-year-old Murtaza Ahmadi from Jaghori District, in the eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.

Initial reports based on online chatter suggested that the boy was from Iraq. The image that spread like fire on social media sparked a hunt for the little boy . Even Messi’s team were reportedly looking for the kid’s whereabouts so they can arrange a real Messi jersey for him. He had been wearing a ‘jersey’ made out of a white plastic bag with blue stripes with ‘Messi 10’ painted on the back, so as to resemble the Argentine football megastar’s national team jersey.

According to the BBC report, Azim Ahmadi, an Afghan living in Australia, posted photos of his nephew Murtaza wearing the DIY-jersey after the initial image went viral, claiming that Murtaza was the one in the photo. Murtaza’s father Arim revealed that the viral photo was taken by the kid’s elder brother.

According to a report in CNN , Murtaza is a big Messi fan and wanted a Messi shirt.

“I told him that we were living in a poor village far from the city and it was impossible for me to get him the shirt. He kept crying for days asking for the shirt until his brother Hamayon helped him make one from the plastic bag to make him happy. He stopped crying after wearing that plastic bag shirt,” the report quoted Arif Ahmadi as saying.

@messi10stats, a popular fan account of the Barcelona superstar, aslo tweeted out the images, confirming the identity of the boy.

Now that the boy’s identity has been ascertained, we hope he gets to meet his idol and also gets a real jersey.