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The football shirt

In the beginning of 2016 there was a five-year-old Afghan boy called Murtaza. He liked football a lot, it was his favourite pastime. He played football all the time. Once he was at his neighbours’ house. The boy’s family didn’t own a tv, but their neighbours did. When he came in, the neighbours were watching a football match. He watched it and was immediately impressed with one of the Argentina players Lionel Messi. He wore a number 10 shirt.

Murtaza couldn’t stop talking about Messi. He was totally obsessed by this excellent player. The next day he wanted to play football again and pretend to be Messi. When he found a plastic bag that looked like the blue-and-white Argentina shirts, he cut it open and wrote a 10 and MESSI on it. Then he went outside and played. He was already a good player for his age, but when he was wearing this ‘shirt’ he felt like he was really playing like Messi.

A passer-by saw this little kid on the street playing with a plastic Messi shirt, he took a photograph of him and put it on the internet. Within a few hours the picture went viral. And of course Messi saw the picture as well. He decided to make sure that this cute little boy got a real shirt. So he tracked the boy and made sure that someone of Unicef took this shirt and a real leather football to Murtaza, all signed by Messi of course. When the boy got the presents, he was so happy! "I love Messi and my shirt says Messi loves me," Murtaza said. 

Now the only thing left for him to wish is to meet Lionel Messi himself. Of course he wants to be a famous football player himself when he grows up.

EXTRA EXERCISE:

 

Choose a classmate and pretend that you are Murtaza an Messi, who are meeting each other for the first time. Act out this conversation.

 

Here you will find everything that you need for your English lessons

ENGLISH YEAR 2

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