Refugee boy who wore Lionel Messi plastic bag shirt forced to flee Afghanistan with family

A five-year-old boy in Afghanistan who became famous for his love of footballer Lionel Messi has been forced to flee the country with his family over fears he could be kidnapped.

Murtaza Ahmadi, whose favourite footballer is the Barcelona forward, found international fame when a picture of him wearing a blue and white striped plastic bag as a shirt with the words “Messi 10” drawn on the back went viral.

Messi, a Unicef goodwill ambassador, sent Murtaza two real shirts and his own football earlier this year, but the gifts appear to have become a hindrance rather than a help.

“A few days ago I got a call from a local gangster. He thought that since my son had received these T-shirts from Messi that maybe he also got money and asked for his share,” Murtza’s father Arif Ahmadi told the BBC.

He believed their home situation had become “very risky” and the family left their home province of Ghazni, where the security is fragile and kidnappings are common.

Now the family are in Quetta, Pakistan, though they are living together in a single room.

Murtaza’s uncle, Wahid Amedi, who also lives in Quetta, told Reuters the family had feared the repercussions of the five-year-old’s fame.

“These people felt that the different gangster and terrorist groups in Afghanistan might kidnap him,” Mr Amedi said.

“There are such gangs that can kidnap him and then demand ransom. His father does not have so much money. That is why they have shifted from [Afghanistan] to this place.”