The little Afghan boy who made international headlines after photos of him wearing a homemade plastic jersey went viral has finally met his hero. Murtaza Ahmadi was photographed wearing the jersey bearing soccer star Lionel Messi’s famous number 10 in January.

On Tuesday, Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organizing committee tweeted photos and video of six-year-old Murtaza meeting Messi in Doha. One of the videos shows a smiling Messi picking up the little boy as they pose for photographs surrounded by the soccer star’s Barcelona teammates.

The organizing committee included this caption in the post, “The image the world wanted to see. The six-year-old boy who dreamed of meeting his hero, #Messi, finally comes true.”

Murtaza is set to accompany the Barcelona forward out on the pitch ahead of their exhibition game against Al-Ahli in Qatar on Tuesday.

Murtaza became an online sensation in January after his older brother, Hamayon Ahmadi, posted photos of him playing soccer in a homemade striped blue plastic bag jersey with the number 10 and “Messi” written on the back.

A global search ensued to identify the adorable young soccer fan. Murtaza, who comes from the Jaghori District, in the eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan, was tracked down soon after the photos went viral online.

In February, Murtaza received a signed jersey from Messi through UNICEF. The jersey was a signed version of the one Messi wears for Argentina in international soccer games and the one the boy’s brother had tried to replicate for him. Messi also plays for Barcelona in Spain. At the time, Murtaza’s father, Mohammad Arif Ahmadi, called it “one of the happiest moments” of his son’s life.

The Ahmadi family fled Afghanistan for Pakistan in May out of fear for their safety, according to Murtaza’s father.