Barcelona Invite Parkland Survivor Anthony Borges to Meet Lionel Messi, Team

Barcelona announced Thursday it has extended an invitation to Anthony Borges, a survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, to meet the team when he is fully recovered and released from the hospital. 

"One of Anthony's greatest dreams has always been to travel to Barcelona and meet the first-team players," Barcelona wrote on its official website. "And as the club told his father Royer on the phone this week, it would be more than happy to help with that."

Barcelona also released a video on Twitter that showed various members of the team signing a jersey for Borges: 

Borges, 15, has been in the hospital since Feb. 14 after he was shot five times in the back and extremities while protecting 20 of his classmates. 

In 2016, he spent two months playing with the Barca Academy team in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 

In a statement issued to the club, Royer said his son was thrilled by Barcelona's gesture. 

"Anthony wanted to get up and go to Spain," he said. "That's always been a dream for him. When we arrived here, we had nothing, we started from scratch. But we were able to put our boy where he wanted to be. He wanted to play for Barca, and it was one of the greatest joys for my wife and I to see him doing that. We put him in one of the schools here in Fort Lauderdale and it was a very exciting time for my lad.

"He sees Barca as the definition of soccer. He says the best players are all at Barca. Because of the way they see things, it’s the best team."