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Murtaza Ahmadi, the five-year-old football fan whose image was spread around the world, is set to meet his hero Lionel Messi.
His story became global news after a picture of the then-unknown youngster, who lives in the Afghan province of Ghazni, wearing a blue and white plastic bag with 'Messi 10' scrawled on the back was picked up by several news outlets - a campaign to unite him with his hero quickly gained traction.
Messi is said to have been made aware of Murtaza's story and wants to meet him.
The Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) now plan to set up a meeting between the Barcelona superstar and the youngster, whose father previously said he couldn't afford a real Messi top.
I love Messi and football. I will meet him one day," the five-year-old told Al Jazeera on Monday.
"I want to become like him (Messi)."
A spokesman for the AFF, Syed Ali Kazemi, said: "We've been contacted by Messi's management team and they have expressed their interest in meeting the boy.
"We are doing our best to coordinate their meeting. The date and the venue is still not confirmed yet, but there are chances of Ahmadi flying to Spain to meet his idol (Messi)."
Kazemi added that "the passion that Murtaza carries for football, we will do everything in our capacity to train him to be a part of our Afghanistan football team".
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