⚽ Football Reborn: The Manager from the Future
Chapter 16 – The Ronaldo Dilemma: Family, Fate, and Madeira's Shadows
The Atlantic Ocean shimmered below as the ferry approached Funchal, Madeira's quiet capital. The island looked peaceful — quaint, almost sleepy — but Ethan knew better.
This was where Cristiano Ronaldo's legend began… and nearly ended.
🧠 AI BRIEFING:
– Subject: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro
– Age: 10
– Location: Santo António, Funchal, Madeira
– Father: José Dinis Aveiro – hospitalized (alcohol-related illness)
– Timeline Threat: Delayed relocation to Sporting CP = 38% chance of stunted development
– Projected Interference: Local scouts & early Benfica offer
– Recommended Action: Intervention via club-employed social worker & athletic grant
Ethan stepped onto the cobbled street with one purpose: Save Ronaldo's future — and his family.
The Aveiro home was more worn than he remembered from the AI scans. The walls cracked with age. A rusted gate hung half-open. A lone dog barked from a neighbor's rooftop.
Cristiano answered the door.
Ten years old. Skinny. Eyes far too focused for his age.
"Hi," he said in soft Portuguese. "Are you here for my dad?"
"No," Ethan said, crouching. "I'm here for you."
Inside, Ethan met Dolores, Ronaldo's mother. She looked exhausted but composed, wearing the kind of resilience only women forged by hardship could wear.
"I don't know who you are," she said firmly, "but we don't need charity."
"I'm not offering charity," Ethan replied. "I'm offering a future."
He opened a brown folder.
Inside: a youth contract for Darlington FC. A relocation stipend. Healthcare support. English language immersion classes. A private tutor. And, most importantly — coverage of her husband's treatment at a private facility in Porto.
Dolores froze.
Cristiano looked up from the floor, wide-eyed.
Ethan leaned in. "Your son… he isn't just special. He's inevitable. But only if he's given the right ground to grow."
Dolores stared into Ethan's eyes for a long time. She didn't blink.
"Are you… an angel or a devil?"
"Neither," Ethan said. "Just someone who came back in time to fix what the world almost ruined."
That evening, Ethan walked the old football pitch near Santo António, the same one where young Cristiano used to fire volleys at broken plastic bottles.
The boy was already there — kicking a battered ball again and again, sweat soaking through his shirt. No one watching. No coach. No crowd.
Just raw, unfiltered will.
Ethan sat down on a concrete step.
"You don't stop training?"
Cristiano shrugged. "If I stop, I don't get better."
"Even at night?"
"Especially at night," the boy said, panting. "That's when no one else trains."
Ethan smiled. "Do you know what that makes you?"
Cristiano shook his head.
"A problem. For everyone else."
Two days later, Dolores signed the paperwork.
A doctor arrived to evaluate José Aveiro and begin preparations for treatment in mainland Portugal. Ronaldo's school was notified of his departure.
The AI pinged:
✅ RONALDO SECURED
Estimated departure: 9 days
Transport: Private charter to Teesside
Risk of Benfica interference: Neutralized
Timeline stabilization: +17.8%
Back in Darlington, trouble brewed.
Greg greeted Ethan at the airport looking unusually pale.
"We've got a leak. Not press this time — a mole inside the youth camp."
"What did they access?"
"Initial videos. Training footage. Names."
Ethan's blood ran cold. "Which names?"
"Messi. Neymar. Bellingham. Vardy. Ronaldo. All flagged. All exported."
AI confirmed it hours later:
⚠️ Timeline Contamination Warning
Unknown third party accessed scouting matrix
Signature matches: FA-adjacent IP, possible private equity firm
Estimated breach vector: Assistant youth coordinator (fired)
Status: Compromised
Someone had caught the scent.
The idea of a team of legends built years before they were famous?
That was priceless.
And in the wrong hands?
Catastrophic.
That night, Ethan locked himself in his office and uploaded an encrypted kill-switch protocol.
☠️ If breach exceeds 40% exposure, burn entire project.
Contingency: Rewrite AI, rebuild roster, relocate under new club ID.
The cost would be immense.
The risk of losing everything was real.
But so was the cost of doing nothing.
This wasn't a fairy tale anymore.
This was a cold war of ambition, money, and history itself.
Across the sea, in Brazil, a different boy danced barefoot on the edge of a favela pitch — a blur of legs and laughter, unaware that his name would one day echo in stadiums around the world.
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior.
Ethan's next target.
And perhaps his most fragile.