Lionel Messi to Meet Murtaza Ahmadi, 5-Year-Old Fan from Afghanistan

The Afghan Football Federation has confirmed that Lionel Messi is looking to meet Murtaza Ahmadi, the five-year-old boy whose photo spread across the Internet after he replicated the Argentinian's shirt by decorating a plastic bag.

"The management of the Afghan Football Federation has received emails from Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona regarding the meeting," Syed Ali Kazemi, the federation's spokesman, told EFE, via Fox News Latino.

Murtaza, who is from Jaghori, Afghanistan, according to CNN's Hilary Whiteman, fashioned the improvised jersey because his parents were unable to get him a real one.

"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," Murtaza's father, Arif, told CNN. "He stopped crying after wearing that plastic bag shirt."

A meeting between Murtaza and Messi now looks likely, as authorities try to arrange a time and place for this heartwarming story to find its conclusion.

[@NeyMarvellous, CNN, h/t Fox News Latino]