Murtaza Horror Story: Messi-worshiping Plastic Bag Boy Who Is The Target Of Kidnapping The Taliban

Murtaza Ahmadi (Twitter @arcaWorldWide)

JAKARTA - Murtaza Ahmadi suddenly became famous in January 2016, when at the age of five, a photo of the Afghan boy was uploaded by his brother to Facebook. In the photo, Murtaza is wearing a plastic bag with the name Lionel Messi.

This story got the attention of a number of media. Furthermore, Messi heard him and greeted the boy to share hugs, photos and joy.

However, that's where the nightmare begins for the Murtaza family, as detailed in a story published on the Bleacher Report on Tuesday.

The plastic bag incident ultimately led to threats, attempts to escape, fear of kidnapping and ultimately exile the boy in Kabul, far from his loved ones.

"I heard rumors that Messi wanted to meet Murtaza," Hamayoun, the boy's brother recalled how Messi came into their lives.

"Soon two boxes from people close to Messi arrived at the house. When I first saw the boxes, I thought one box was filled with toys for Murtaza and the other box was filled with money, but no, it was balls and shirts," he explained. Murtaza's father, Arif.

This is where the trouble started, people began to believe that Messi had sent large sums of money to the Ahmadi family and they started stalking their family home.

The Taliban then sent a letter to the Ahmadi family, threatening to arrest the entire family. They then applied for asylum, but were refused.

"We went to Doha so Messi could do something for him, but he didn't do anything for Murtaza," added Arif.

Then Murtaza had some pretty tough days. With people believing Messi gave him money, he then stopped going to school, stopped going out of the house and stopped playing football. He's scared.

His family then exiled Murtaza and his uncle to Kabul, but fears of kidnapping were exacerbated by an increase in terror attacks in Afghanistan.

However, his name is a boy, when asked if he regrets ever wearing the shirt or not, Murtaza remains loyal to Messi.

"I will wear the shirt again, because I admire Messi," he said.

Months ago, Murtaza finally returned home and rejoined his family.