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Six-year-old Afghan boy who wore plastic bag as Messi jersey meets his hero

The pair came face-to-face in Qatar.

THE AFGHAN BOY who won the Internet’s heart when he was pictured wearing a plastic bag as an improvised Lionel Messi jersey has finally met his hero.

Murtaza Ahmadi met the Barcelona forward in Doha, where the Spanish champions are due to play a friendly match against Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli later.

Six-year-old Murtaza, from the rural Ghazni province southwest of Kabul, is also due to walk out onto the pitch with the Argentinian at Doha’s Al-Gharrafa stadium.

A photo of Murtaza wearing the blue-and-white-striped plastic shirt with Messi’s name scrawled in black marker went viral in January after his older brother posted it to Facebook.

In a video posted to Twitter, the Supreme Committee for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar said: ”The image the world wanted to see. The six-year old boy who dreamed of meeting his hero, #Messi, finally comes true.”

(Click here if the video doesn’t play)

– First published 12.48

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