The System Turned Football's Worst Prospect Into a Monster.

Chapter 90: Volume 1, Chapter 90: Useful, Not Spectacular

Rayan finished his warm-up along the touchline, accelerating through three short strides before jogging back towards the technical area. Around the fifty-eighth minute, Nuno Marques gestured towards the bench, calling Leandro Viana off the pitch. Leandro jogged across, giving Rayan a brief palm-tap as he crossed the line. The substitution was a routine preseason change rather than a promotion; Leandro remained the primary choice on the left wing, and Rayan was simply receiving his allotted minutes.

Rayan stepped onto the grass and took up his position wide on the left flank.

His first touch came almost immediately, and it went poorly. Leandro Freitas played a firm, ground-level pass along the touchline towards him. Rayan opened his hips to receive, but his body orientation was slightly too square to the incoming ball, and his control stopped it dead rather than pushing it into space. Tiago Amado had held his position patiently, waiting for that exact moment. As soon as the ball came to a standstill, Tiago stepped in shoulder-to-shoulder, knocked Rayan off balance and poked the ball cleanly into André Loureiro’s path.

Rayan lost the duel cleanly. He did not chase after Tiago in a sudden burst of frustration or attempt a reckless recovery tackle. Instead, he turned, sprinted back and recovered into Sporting’s defensive shape on the left.

Leandro Freitas pointed down the line as they recovered.

"Come towards it before he arrives."

Rayan nodded. The mistake had not been only the dead touch. He had waited for the pass in the same space Tiago had spent the first half protecting. On the next build-up, Rayan started moving before Leandro released the ball. Tiago followed without diving in, and the forward lane disappeared, but Rayan set the ball back first time instead of trying to rescue the action through contact. Sporting retained possession and started again.

Leandro began choosing his overlap more carefully. On the next attack, Rayan moved towards the pass rather than waiting beside the line. Tiago followed, expecting another touch back into pressure. Scanning over his shoulder before the ball arrived, Rayan executed a First-Touch Escape. Allowing the ball to travel across his body and cushioning it with his left foot into the space away from Tiago’s angle of approach.

Rayan’s movement towards the ball gave Leandro the signal to accelerate outside. Rayan released the ball inside to Namir Haddad before Tiago could make contact, then continued diagonally. Namir found Leandro first time, forcing Tiago to turn towards his own goal while André shifted across to protect the half-space. Leandro’s return ball towards Rayan was cut out by André, but the sequence had moved both defenders and carried Sporting forward.

Two minutes later, Rayan tried to repeat the pattern too quickly. He began his run before Namir had secured possession, and Tiago followed him without leaving the passing lane. Namir had to recycle through Salvador Almeida. Rayan checked back into position. Movement only helped when it matched the timing of the pass.

In the seventy-second minute, Sporting finally exploited the pattern Rayan had identified from the bench.

Rayan received wide on the left touchline. Instead of driving directly at Tiago from a standing start, he played a swift one-two with Rodrigo Figueiredo and continued his run into the half-space. The pass forced André Loureiro to shift inside while Tiago reset his feet.

Rodrigo returned the ball to Rayan in motion. Attacking at genuine speed rather than from a standstill, Rayan closed the distance on Tiago. At three yards, Rayan dropped his shoulder into a compact Body Feint, feigning an inside drive. Tiago reacted, shifting his weight just enough to protect the central lane.

The move created half a yard of space on the outside, all Rayan needed. Rayan struck an early, low cross into the box. Gonçalo Matos timed his movement to perfection, darting between Martim Seabra and Lucas Figueiredo to turn a sharp, first-time finish into the bottom corner.

Gonçalo raised his arms and shouted in celebration, turning back towards midfield as his teammates joined him. Sporting led 2–1.

The goal did not make the final minutes comfortable. Tiago adjusted on Rayan’s next reception, staying half a step deeper and refusing to react to the first shoulder movement. Rayan pushed the ball outside anyway, but Tiago matched him and blocked the attempted cross behind for a corner.

When Sporting built down the left again, the right-back met him shoulder-to-shoulder and forced him backwards before he could turn. Rayan kept possession by setting the ball back to Leandro, but the duel reminded him that the assist had not changed their physical balance. A few minutes later, he received between the lines with André closing and chose the simple return pass into Rodrigo rather than forcing another turn. On the opposite flank, Duarte drove at Lemos again and forced another hurried clearance, continuing to look like the more complete winger across the match.

Five minutes later, Rayan approached Tiago from the wrong angle during Académica’s build-up. The right-back used a simple wall pass with Henrique Brito to move beyond him, leaving Rayan chasing towards his own corner. On another possession, Rayan drifted centrally, trusted his right foot under pressure and turned directly into André, surrendering the ball in the middle third.

Late on, Tiago overlapped again as Académica searched for an equaliser. This time Rayan recognised the run early, followed him towards the box and slid across the passing lane to block the low delivery. The ball ricocheted down the line, allowing Sporting to recover their shape.

As the players moved back into position, Duarte Faria passed close enough for only Rayan to hear him.

"Good cross," Duarte said. "One assist doesn’t put you beside me."

Rayan looked towards the scoreboard instead of answering. Duarte had scored, threatened for far longer and remained the better winger across the match. None of that erased Rayan’s contribution, and none of it made the gap permanent.

When the referee blew the final whistle, the match ended Sporting U17 2–1 Académica U17. Over the full ninety minutes, Duarte Faria remained Sporting’s standout wide attacker, maintaining a constant threat on the right flank throughout his performance.

The assist entered only Rayan’s preseason-friendly record: one appearance, no goals and one assist.

As he reached for his water bottle near the bench, a series of notifications resolved before his eyes on a smoked-black panel:

[POSITIVE MATCH ACTION VERIFIED.]

[Positive match actions: 3/3.]

[BODY FEINT PROFICIENCY ADVANCED.]

[Body Feint: Basic — 4%.]

[First-Touch Escape: Novice — 35%.]

[MISSION CHAIN COMPLETE: U17 INTEGRATION.]

[Reward: +5 Attribute Points.]

[Reward: +1 Intermediate Skill Token.]

[Overall: 48 → 49.]

Rayan dismissed the panel without allocating the attribute points or skill token, keeping his focus on the post-match talk.

Nuno Marques gathered the group for a brief debrief. When his eyes met Rayan’s, his feedback remained measured and direct.

"Good timing on the cross," Marques said. "You moved Tiago and kept it low. Your press was late, and you turned into pressure in the middle. Useful. Still work to do."

Rayan nodded in agreement. The assessment was precise: he had been useful when called upon, but far from spectacular.