ISIS kidnap ‘Messi’

Three-year-old Iraqi boy abducted because he was named after ‘infidel’

In what can only be termed a bizarre act, terrorist organisation Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) kidnapped an Iraqi boy after his father named him after Argentina and Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi.

According to Daily Mail, Messi was abducted by ISIS with his mother and sister from their home in Sinjar, northern Iraq in 2014, and was forced to change his name to Hassan.

ISIS kidnapped a three-year-old Iraqi boy and kept him hostage for two years because he was named after Lionel Messi (🎥 via @K24English) pic.twitter.com/jew54vWYNo

— B/R Football (@brfootball) April 26, 2017

The extremist outfit also demanded ransom from the Yazidi Kurdish family.  Messi, who was kidnapped at the age of three, spent nearly two years in captivity, but has since been rescued and is now living in a refugee camp in Dohuk, Iraqi Kurdistan.

Last year, a five-year-old Afghan boy become an Internet star after pictures went viral of him wearing an Argentina football shirt made out of a plastic bag with his hero Messi’s name.

Later in December, Murtaza Ahmadi finally met his favourite football star in Doha.

For the entire interview, watch this video.