Football Reborn: The Manager from the future

⚽ Football Reborn: The Manager from the Future

Chapter 52 – Bloodlines and Battlelines

Abasi stood frozen, staring at the security monitor.

On the screen: a grizzled man with ash-gray dreadlocks, weather-beaten skin, and the unmistakable eyes of a younger version of himself.

Beside him stood Maestra, smiling faintly like a magician mid-trick.

Chuva's voice came through the earpiece. "Do not open the gate."

But it was too late.

Abasi was already walking.

🧬 The Meeting

The gate creaked open.

Neither man moved at first.

Then slowly, Abasi stepped forward.

"Your name," he asked. Voice low. Steady.

The man cleared his throat. "Solomon Kai."

Abasi's eyes flickered. He'd heard the name whispered in fragments — in stories, in warnings.

"Why now?"

Kai didn't answer immediately. His hands trembled slightly as he pulled a small photo from his pocket.

A boy. Abasi, age 5. Clutching a plastic ball on a dirt pitch.

"I never stopped watching."

Abasi took the photo with trembling fingers.

Maestra stepped back, letting the scene unfold. She didn't need to speak. Her presence was enough — a phantom, weaving chaos without touching a single thread.

🎙️ Inside the Compound

The rest of the team gathered at the monitors.

Kojo paced. "This is messed up. She brought him?"

Thiago clenched his fists. "It's another trap. She's playing us."

Chuva nodded. "Yes — but that doesn't make it fake."

Seraph ran a background check in real-time. Solomon Kai had disappeared after a major match-fixing scandal in 2012. The charges were dropped due to "lack of evidence." But his name never recovered.

"He wasn't guilty," Seraph said softly. "But the world needed someone to blame."

💔 Father and Son

Abasi and Kai sat on a bench beneath the training center's old oak tree.

Kai spoke slowly.

"They told me to throw a match. I refused. They framed me anyway."

"And you didn't come back?" Abasi said coldly.

"I was told you were better off without me."

The wind passed between them, heavy with years of silence.

"I kicked my first ball thinking I was proving you wrong," Abasi said.

Kai nodded.

"You did more than that. You built something I could never have imagined."

Then he reached into his coat and handed Abasi a notebook.

His old training journal.

Torn pages. Notes. Drawings. Tactical musings.

"You always asked where your fire came from," Kai said. "It's in there."

🎯 Maestra's Message

As the team debated what to do next, a new message arrived on Chuva's private network.

Untraceable.

Just a voice message.

Maestra's voice.

"You're good, Chuva. But every great man falls eventually. Not from defeat — but from division. You built a dream. I built a mirror. Let's see who breaks first."

Chuva didn't respond.

Instead, he forwarded the message to every player.

Then walked into the common room and said:

"She's no longer hiding. Neither are we."

🔥 Rallying the Fire

That night, Chuva gathered everyone — players, staff, Clara, even Kai — for a bonfire on the training field.

No scripts. No cameras. No walls.

He handed each of them a piece of paper and a match.

"Write down the lie you've believed about yourself," he said. "And burn it."

One by one, they stepped forward.

Kojo: "You're only fast. Nothing more."

Thiago: "You'll never be more than potential."

Seraph: "You are not real."

Abasi looked down at his page.

Then scribbled:

"You are the result of a broken man."

He struck the match, lit the paper, and watched it vanish into ash.

🧠 The System Strikes Back

The next day, Seraph initiated Phase II of the Tempo Learning Engine.

A neural fusion of player psychology and tactical decision-making — not just analyzing data, but adapting in real time to emotional state, morale, and subconscious bias.

It was risky.

But Tempo FC was no longer just a team.

They were an idea.

And now, they were awake.

🧿 Maestra's Next Move

Elsewhere, in a villa overlooking Lake Como, Maestra poured herself a glass of red wine.

"Tempo's bond is holding," her assistant said. "They've stabilized."

Maestra smiled.

"Perfect."

She slid a file across the table.

Labeled: FIFA—Sanction Protocol D1

The assistant paled.

"This is—"

"Yes," Maestra said. "We've tried to break them from the inside."

Now she would try something else.

"Let's break the world around them."

🏟️ Next Match Announced

The news hit like a thunderbolt.

Tempo FC had been selected to participate in the International Club Revelation Cup.

Hosted in Qatar. Sanctioned by FIFA. Broadcast globally.

Their first opponent?

Paris Saint-Germain.

Kylian Mbappé was back.

Tempo had six days.