One moment, Ander was passionately trading insults with the hardcore fans in the south stand at San Siro. The next, he was on the bench for the Club World Cup semifinals.
Looking at the players on the pitch, all of them stripped of their fighting spirit, Ander could take no more. He volunteered to go on.
Ander swept through his team's backfield, forcefully shutting down every one of the opponents' attacks and turning them back again and again.
After that match, Ander's name and the chants of the Madridistas rang out across world football. The white-clad boy who had dazzled at the Bernabeu at just seventeen, then faded into obscurity for three years for reasons unknown, had returned to the scene.
He had worn white for seven years, and had also spent twelve years with the Rossoneri.
Ander entered Real Madrid's youth academy at ten. One day, at seventeen, he was lying on the grass at Valdebebas, dreaming of playing alongside Maldini, Nesta, and Stam. Then a broken System appeared and sent him straight back to that era.
During his twelve years with the Rossoneri, Ander won every honor there was. But the gears of fate had already begun to turn. In the end, he had to put on that white jersey again and start over with nothing, determined to defend the bright days of his youth.
Please note:
1. The protagonist is forceful and not a good person. He'll fight opponents, and if his teammates have an attitude problem, he'll curse them out and throw punches. On the pitch, he indulges no one, superstar or not.
2. A single dad. The child is biologically his, but you could also say not biologically his (?!)
3. The System's only golden finger is sending the protagonist back to a parallel world more than twenty years in the past.
4. British-Spanish mixed heritage; he plays for the British national team (and enjoys watching the drama unfold).
5. The protagonist has already won every honor in another world.
Blurb posted on July 20. To be revised.
Theme: A single dad plays football and raises his child
