Barcelona star Lionel Messi has gifted a life-changing artificial vision device to an eight-year-old footballer who lost sight due to rare eye condition.
Mikey Poulli, from London, who was diagnosed with a rare and incurable eye condition at seven-years-old and subsequently lost his sight, was spotted by England's blind squad coach last year.
After hearing his story, Barcelona superstar Messi, 33, decided to gift the young footballer a £2,700 artificial vision device that allow visually impaired people to understand text and identify objects through audio feedback.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain today, passionate Arsenal supporter Mikey told he was ‘amazed' to receive the gift, and that he can now participate in class work just like the rest of his schoolmates.
OrCam MyEye is a voice-activated device that attaches to virtually any glasses and can instantly read to you text from a book, smartphone screen or any other surface.
The interview struck a chord with viewers who quickly took to Twitter to praise Mikey, with one writing: ‘You're a legend'.
As he lost his sight, Mikey's football team told him that he could no longer play for them because it was a risk to other players.
But not wanting to give up, his parents then took him to Tottenham's Centre of Excellence where he joined the visually impaired team.
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Mikey now trains once a month with other blind children and England football team at Brighton FC’s training centre.
This article was most recently revised and updated 3 years ago
