Murtaza and his family abandoned their home in southeastern Ghazni province in November, along with hundreds of others fleeing intense fighting after the Taliban launched an offensive in the previously safe area.

Now they are among the thousands of similarly uprooted people struggling to get by in Kabul, and also living with the fear that the Taliban are hunting for their famous son.

The image of Murtaza sporting a makeshift Messi jersey — made of a blue and white striped plastic bag and with Messi’s name and famous number 10 written carefully on the back in felt-tip pen — flooded media and social networks in 2016.

    The media hype drew the football superstar’s attention, and that year Murtaza met his idol in Qatar, where he walked out onto the pitch clutching Messi’s hand as a mascot for a Barcelona friendly.

Messi, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, also gave his tiny fan an autographed jersey and a football.

But the moment of happiness has quickly dissipated.

AFP met with the family recently in the cramped room in Kabul they are renting from another impoverished family, where Murtaza’s mother Shafiqa told how they had fled their home district of Jaghori in the night after hearing gunshots.

“We couldn’t take any of our belongings, we left only with our lives,” she said, her face half hidden by a scarf.

The family belongs to the Shiite-denominated Hazara ethnic group, who were targeted by the Sunni Taliban in their November operation in Ghazni.

The UN says up to 4,000 families fled, with witnesses describing “absolute terror” to AFP. Hundreds of civilians, soldiers, and insurgents were killed in the fighting.

The fear felt by the Ahmadi family was ratcheted up when they learned that the Taliban were searching for the small Murtaza by name.

“(They) said if they capture him, they will cut him into pieces,” Shafiqa said, her eyes horrified.

Sports were rarely tolerated under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, and the Kabul football stadium was a well-known venue for stonings and executions.

Shafiqa said she hid her famous son’s face with a scarf to prevent him from being recognised as they fled.

They took refuge first in a mosque in Bamiyan, before arriving in Kabul six days later. Among their belongings left behind are the football and jersey signed by Messi.

– ‘I miss Messi’ –

Although Afghan security forces have beaten back the Taliban in Jaghori, the family says it no longer feels safe.

“The danger of the Taliban coming back is high, going back is not an option,” Shafiqa said.

The attention they received as a result of Murtaza’s fame has added to their fears, she continued.

“Local strongmen were calling and saying, ‘You have become rich, pay the money you have received from Messi or we will take your son’,” she said.

“At night we would sometimes see unknown men, watching and checking our house, and then the calls. During the days, we wouldn’t dare let him outside home to play with other children.”

The family have already fled once before, to Pakistan in 2016, where they sought asylum in “any safe country”.

They returned reluctantly to Jaghori after their money ran out, Shafiqa said.

Murtaza’s father Arif remains in Jaghori working as a farmer while his family lives in Kabul under precarious conditions, with inadequate shelter, food, water or sanitation available to the refugees.

They are among the more than 300,000 Afghans — 58 percent of whom are under the age of 18 — who have fled their homes due to violence since the beginning of this year alone, according to the most recent tally by the UN’s agency for humanitarian affairs.

Homayoun, Murtaza’s eldest brother who made him his plastic jersey, says that even in Kabul he is afraid. “We are worried something bad will happen if they know who Murtaza is,” he said.

Little Murtaza, meanwhile, says he misses his football and his jersey from Messi.

“I want them back so I can play,” he told AFP.

“I miss Messi,” he added.

“When I meet him, I will say, ‘Salaam’ and ‘How are you?’ Then he will reply saying thank you and be safe, and I will go with him to the pitch where he will play and I will watch him.”

While some boats in the slower sections of the 11 classes only managed one race, the two fastest keelboat classes and one of the multihull classes squeezed in three races, largely because of their speed around the ocean courses.

In the hotly contested IRC Zero Class for racing keelboats, experienced Australian skipper Ray Roberts’ boat Team Hollywood won the first two races, but finished fourth in the final outing. THA 72 ended the day in second place after finishing behind Team Hollywood in the first two races and getting a third place in the final race of the day.

Sarab Singh on his boat Wind Sikher took the honors in the third and final race in the IRC Zero Class. Little separates the top three TP 52-design boats on the water with Ray Roberts new campaign proving the solid leaders.

In the second-tier IRC 1 Class for keelboats, Australian Craig Nichols finished first on his boat Aquari after the three races contested on Wednesday. Aquari won the first two races and finished fifth in the final race. Scott Bradley’s East Marine Emagine ended the day a close second overall after two third placings and a second place.

In the multihull section, the mostly Phuket-built Firefly 850 Sports Class boats also squeezed in three races, with Great Britain’s John Newham taking first place overall on Twin Sharks. Very little separates the field in this tightly contested class of almost identical racing catamarans, with Germany’s Hans Rahmann finishing second overall on Voodoo. Brit Neil Ayre on Mamba ended the day a close third.

Dan Fidock maintained his lead in the Racing Multihull Class on his small but speedy trimaran Fugazi, again seeing off the challenge from the large 60-foot speed machine SHK Scallywag Fuku Bid. Few boats can even go close to matching the speed of the much larger Scallywag in strong breezes, but Fugazi proved to be no slouch and came out on top after handicaps were taken into consideration.

Closer to shore on Wednesday, racing was underway in the International Dinghy Classes, with a large number of junior sailors testing their skills off Kata Beach. Almost 100 junior sailors are contesting the various dinghy classes, with the racing held off Kata Beach on Wednesday.

Experience King’s Cup keelboat sailor Commander Peera Sagultan of the Royal Thai Navy is the Dingy Race Officer, overseeing the 97 young sailors on the water.

“We had good wind today of 15 to 20 knots and some exciting racing,” he said. “We had four races today (Wednesday) and will have a total of 12 races by the time we finish up on Saturday. We have Optimists, Lasers and 420s racing.”

One result that surprised no one was a first place finish in the Optimist Class on Wednesday by 13-year-old Panwa Boonak, an Asian Sailing Championships winner and a member of the Thai World Championship team. Up-and-coming sailor M.L. Weka Bhanubandh Na Ayuttaya showed great skills despite his young age in the Optimist Class with a second place finish, followed by Patihan Vorrasart in third place.

While the International Dingy Sailors will be racing on Thursday, it will be a rest day for the rest of the fleet at this year’s Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, giving crews a well-deserved rest and skippers and owners time to fine tune or repair their boats. The keelboat and multihull action gets underway again on Friday off the southern tip of the resort island.

Arsenal extend their unbeaten run to 20 games and went ahead through Shkodran Mustafi and Alexandre Lacazette in each half only for United to respond almost instantly.

But Mourinho’s men remain eight points off the top four in eighth place after a fourth straight league game without a win.

Mourinho had opted to leave out-of-form big name stars Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku on his bench and when United conceded first, for the 11th time in 21 games this season, his supporters might have feared the worst.

Indeed, Arsenal’s opening goal featured that rarest of collector’s items, a mistake by United’s Spanish international goalkeeper David de Gea.

Chris Smalling slipped at Lucas Torreira’s 26th minute corner, allowing Mustafi the space to send a free header bouncing into the ground and goalwards.

It looked a routine save for United’s number one but he succeeded only in pushing the ball into the air, two-handed, over his own head and over the goalline, despite Ander Herrera’s desperation clearance.

Yet, as so often has been the case this season, United responded to going behind.

Rojo, playing for the first time this season after a long-term knee injury, unleashed a terrific shot which Bernd Leno kept out at the foot of his left-hand post.

Herrera responded quickly, although replays suggested he may have been fractionally offside, reaching the loose ball on the by-line and turning it into the six-yard area where Martial was able to convert.

That dramatic pattern would be repeated after 68 minutes when Arsenal regained a lead they could only hold, on this occasion, for 74 seconds.

Lacazette played a one-two with fellow substitute Henrikh Mkhitaryan and advanced into the area where Rojo tackled him from behind and succeeded only in turning the ball off the French international and into the net.

But there could be no faulting United’s response as Arsenal panicked at a long ball punted forward, almost directly from kick-off.

Lukaku caused uncertainty in the visitors’ area and as Sead Kolasinac tried to turn the ball back to his goalkeeper, he allowed Lingard to ghost in and complete a simple finish past Leno.

Error-strewn as it might have been, there could be no faulting the entertainment in the first Manchester United-Arsenal fixture since 1986 to take place without either Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger in one of the dug-outs.

De Gea made amends for his first-half error with two fine saves to deny in-form Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with Mkhitaryan also wasting a good close-range chance in between.

Neither Mkhitaryan nor the injured Alexis Sanchez have shone since a January swap deal between the clubs, but only the offside flag denied the Armenian coming back to haunt United in stoppage time when he rifled home after another decent De Gea stop from Torreira.

Wolves also overturned an early deficit to inflict just Chelsea’s second defeat of the season in a 2-1 win at Molineux, allowing Tottenham to move back up to third with a comfortable 3-1 win over Southampton.

Chelsea and Arsenal are now tied on 31 points in fourth, still eight clear of United in eighth.

Given the relentless pace being set by City at the top of the table, Liverpool couldn’t afford any slip ups at Turf Moor despite Jurgen Klopp making seven changes with Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino left on the bench and Sadio Mane missing through injury.

Their firepower was badly missed as Liverpool laboured in the first-half and went behind early in the second.

A huge error by £67 million ($75 million) goalkeeper Alisson Becker for Burnley’s shock opener when Jack Cork bundled home after the Brazilian fumbled in the wet conditions.

However, the visitors quickly rallied to stretch their unbeaten start to the league season to 15 games.

James Milner levelled just after the hour mark and then turned provider for Firmino to turn the game around just three minutes after coming on as a substitute before Xherdan Shaqiri sealed the three points late on.

“The character we showed after going behind, to come back in that fashion is what we expect from this team,” said Milner.

Arsenal stretched their unbeaten run to 20 games, but failed to take advantage of two gifts from the hosts as United’s winless run in the Premier League extended to four matches.

Amid an underperforming side this season, goalkeeper David de Gea has remained in almost impeccable form, but the Spaniard spilled Shkodran Mustafi’s header over the line to hand Arsenal the lead 26 minutes in.

Four minutes later the hosts levelled when Anthony Martial turned home Ander Herrera’s cross after Bernd Leno saved Marcos Rojo’s cross.

– Spurs go third –

Both second-half goals came in a crazy minute as firstly Rojo turned the ball off Alexandre Lacazette and into the United net in his attempts to make a last-ditch tackle.

“We scored four goals and drew 2-2! As always we made mistakes and we paid for the mistakes,” said United manager Jose Mourinho.

“Today was more the same, but with great spirit and people ready to have a go and fight hard, it was a credit to the team.”

Arsenal were barely done celebrating when the ball was in the net at the other end as a misunderstanding between Sead Kolasinac and Leno allowed Jesse Lingard to nip in and equalise.

De Gea redeemed himself with two fine saves from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan also had a late Arsenal goal ruled out for offside.

Wolves registered their first win in seven games despite going behind to Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s 18th minute opener for Chelsea.

“We played very well for 55 minutes and then suddenly we were another team,” bemoaned Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri.

Raul Jimenez and Diogo Jota struck in a four-minute spell either side of the hour mark.

“This doesn’t mean all the problems are solved. It means we have to maintain these standards,” said Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo.

Spurs took advantage of Chelsea and Arsenal dropping points to move back up to third with a comfortable 3-1 win over Southampton, whose new manager Ralph Hasenhuttl watched on from the stands at Wembley.

Harry Kane turned home Christian Eriksen’s cross to give Tottenham a half-time lead before Lucas Moura and Son Heung-min scored twice in four minutes after the break to bounce back from a painful North London derby defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.

Fulham edged to within a point of safety despite blowing the lead in a 1-1 draw with Leicester.

Honours were also even in a 1-1 draw between Everton and Newcastle as Richarlison cancelled out Salomon Rondon’s opener.

Thailand and Malaysia completed their first leg of the semi-final at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium last Saturday with a 0-0 draw. The Kingdom therefore must beat the visitors only in order to advance to the finals but that didn’t happen.

The host struck the first blood due to an own goal by Irfan Zakaria in the 21^st minute before Sayahmi Safari found an equalizer seven minutes later.

Thailand surged ahead in the 63^rd minute through a header from Pansa Hemviboon before Norshahruk Idlan Talaha levelled the tie with a beautiful kick in the 71^st minute.

During the injury time Adisak Kraisorn could have turned the tide for Thailand with a penalty kick from the 12 yard but his shot unbelievably flew over the horizontal bars.

The 24-year old martial arts icon will be stepping into the One Super Series ring for a third time at One: Destiny of Champions on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia against England’s Liam “Hitman” Harrison.

The two-division Lumpinee Stadium world champion will get the chance to bounce back from his loss to Alaverdi “Dagger” Ramazanov back in October.

More than just getting wins inside the ring, Petchmorrakot is happy that he is able to display the full beauty of “The Art of Eight Limbs” to a bigger global audience, thanks to the One Super Series.

“This is a chance for me to showcase my skills to the world, and to show fans the beauty of Muay Thai,” Petchmorrakot said.

Moreover, it gives the Thai star a brand new challenge to chase.

A veteran of nearly 200 professional Muay Thai bouts, there’s very little left for Petchmorrakot to prove.

“You can say that I’ve done it all in the sport but it’s not yet over for me. I am still grinding every day,” he said.

In the One Super Series arena however, Petchmorrakot finds himself motivated to chase the most prestigious prize in the game: the One World Championship.

“One Super Series is the right path for me and my professional career. The desire to compete, it’s still in me,” he said.

Immediately, Petchmorrakot made a splash in his promotional debut, defeating Fabrice Fairtex Delannon via second-round TKO at One: Pinnacle of Power in Macau.

While he was not able to translate his momentum into a win over Ramazanov in Bangkok at One: Kingdom of Heroes in Bangkok, he gets the opportunity to get back on track against Harrison, an English newcomer with an impressive resume of his own.

“I am glad that I was able to make a One Super Series debut earlier this year, because it has already given me the feel of what the future holds. It’s a great opportunity for every practitioner of Muay Thai,” Petchmorrakot concluded.