QUETTA: A young Afghan fan of Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi has fled his home and gone to Pakistan because his family feared he could be kidnapped after he became an unlikely Internet sensation, the boy’s relatives said on Tuesday.

Five-year-old Murtaza Ahmedi grabbed world headlines after being photographed in a shirt improvised from a plastic bag in the colours of the Argentine national team bearing Messi’s name and number 10 playing number.

His home is in the central region of Ghazni where security has been fragile and where kidnappings are common.

“We request the government here, the Afghan government, the United Nations, and any Football Associations to fulfil Murtaza’s wish of meeting Messi.”

Argentine superstar also sent autographed jerseys to his tiny fan via Unicef.

A UNHCR spokesman in Quetta confirmed the family had applied for emigration and said the agency was investigating their application.

Talking to Dawn in a house in Hazara Town, Muratza’s father Muhammad Arif Ahmedi, 44, said he had been forced to leave his country to save his son and other members of his family after continuously receiving threats by phone.

“I decided to move to Pakistan and in March I left Kabul and reached Islamabad by air,” he said, adding that he had been left with no other option.

After staying in Islamabad for a few days, he moved to Quetta where he has no relative but is living with a large number of people of his Hazara community.

“I am living in a rented house in Hazara Town and people of the community have been taking care of my family but I do not feel safe even here,” Mr Ahmedi said.

“I have applied to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) to help my family to get asylum in any country where I and my family would not have to face any threat.”

He said he was paying over Rs5,000 rent for the small house where he was living with his five children and wife.

He said he was a farmer Jaghori district of Ghazni province in Afghanistan.

Mr Ahmedi said that he had gone to Kabul after his son, now known as junior Messi, received the signed T-shirt and football.

“We started receiving threatening phone calls from unknown people when his pictures were published in big newspapers in Kabul,” he said.

“Unknown callers asked me to stop my son from playing football and send him for Islamic education,” Mr Ahmedi said.

“I was receiving three to five phone calls every day.”

He said he feared that his son might be kidnapped by the people who were threatening him.

“They thought that Messi had sent us money with the T-shirt and football,” he said.

He said his son wanted to meet Messi.

Little Murtaza, who can only speak his mother tongue Darri, said that he wanted to become a star footballer like Messi.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2016