Iraqi boy Qassem Qadim, who is shown in the photograph titled "Desire for Life", travelled to Moscow and on 12 May attended a Russian Premier League match between the Spartak and Ufa football clubs. Ahead of the game, the boy was given a ball on which Spartak players had written their autographs as a gift. He also made a symbolic kick with the ball.
It is expected that the boy will spend a week in the Russian capital.
Russian footballer (Spartak) Georgi Dzhikiya and Iraqi boy Qassem Qadim, who is shown in a photograph titled "Desire for Life" that won gold in the Sports category of the 2018 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest.
Iraqi boy Qassem Qadim (left), who is shown in a photograph titled "Desire for Life" that won gold in the Sports category of the 2018 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, with his father before a match in the Otkritie Arena in Moscow.
Russian footballer (Spartak) Georgi Dzhikiya and Iraqi boy Qassem Qadim, who is shown in a photograph titled "Desire for Life" that won gold in the Sports category of the 2018 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest.
Iraqi boy Qassem Qadim (left), who is shown in a photograph titled "Desire for Life" that won gold in the Sports category of the 2018 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, with his father before a match in the Otkritie Arena in Moscow.
Iraqi boy Qassem Qadim, who is shown in a photograph titled "Desire for Life" that won gold in the Sports category of the 2018 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, makes a symbolic kick with a ball before the start of the match of the 28th round of the Russian Premier League football championships between FC Spartak (Moscow) and FC Ufa (Ufa).
Iraqi boy Qassem Qadim (left), who is shown in a photograph titled "Desire for Life" that won gold in the Sports category of the 2018 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, before a match in the Otkritie Arena in Moscow.
A visitor at the opening event of the exhibition winners of the Fourth Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest in Moscow.
Iraqi boy Qassem Qadim (left), who is shown in a photograph titled "Desire for Life" that won gold in the Sports category of the 2018 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, before a match in the Otkritie Arena in Moscow.
(Right to left) Head of the Moscow Institute of Emergency Children's Surgery and Traumatology Leonid Roshal, photographer Taisir Mahdi, Qassem Qadim, Dmitry Kiselev, the director general of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and Amiran Revishvili, head of A.V. Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery (left) during a visit to the Otkritie Arena in Moscow.
Qassem Qadim (right) and Dmitry Kiselev, the director general of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency during a visit to the Otkritie Arena stadium in Moscow.
The photograph titled "Desire for Life" that won gold in the Sports category of the 2018 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, on an announcement board before a match in the Otkritie Arena in Moscow.
(Left to right) Head of the Moscow Institute of Emergency Children's Surgery and Traumatology Leonid Roshal, photographer Taisir Mahdi, Qassem Qadim, who is shown in a photograph titled "Desire for Life" that won gold in the Sports category of the 2018 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest, with his father during a visit to the Otkritie Arena in Moscow.
Iraqi boy Qassem Qadim, who is shown in a photograph titled "Desire for Life" that won gold in the Sports category of the 2018 Andrei Stenin International Press Photo Contest before a match in the Otkritie Arena in Moscow.
