This one heartbreaking image of a young Iraqi boy wearing a plastic bag with ‘Messi’ on the back sparked a worldwide search.
The impoverished lad had improvised an Argentina shirt bearing the name of his football idol.
The picture swept across the internet and even Lionel Messi himself got involved to try and find the boy and get him a real shirt.
But now it seems that the young footballer has been tracked down to a war-torn part of Kurdistan – a region straddling Turkey and Iraq.
The lad’s name is Homid and he lives in the Kurdish town of Dohuk in Iraq, according to Kurdish TV channel Kurdistan24tv.
Homid says the photo was taken two years ago and he made the shirt because Lionel Messi is his hero, according to 101 Great Goals.
“I like Messi. He is a brilliant player,” he said, now wearing a regular Barcelona shirt with number 10 on the back.
It also reveals how Homid’s dad is away fighting with the Kurdish Peshmerga against ISIS and that he lives with his mum in Dohuk.
Tweets about the boy have already been spreading across the internet…
https://twitter.com/BarcaBboy/status/691746493665976320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/messi10stats/status/691669761537642496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Fair play.
https://youtu.be/6sdKZqtGM6A
