TURIN, ITALY — The former Portuguese footballer megastar Cristiano Ronaldo sold an NFT of his genetic sequence yesterday to Italian professional football club Juventus for a record 1,000,000 Ether. Ronaldo, now 86 years old, had been keeping his genetic code private despite growing demand for his sequence. There was some hope he would make his DNA open source so anyone in the public could apply his genes to their designer babies, as what happened when Pele’s remains were exhumed. However, Ronaldo ultimately decided to sell his sequence to Juventus F.C., who out-spent Real Madrid, Arsenal, and Chelsea in a bidding war last night. Juventus has stated that they plan to begin growing clones of Ronaldo immediately to add to their roster in the late 2080s.
Juventus will certainly need the help to compete in the Champions League with Manchester United’s fleet of Lionel Messi and David Beckham clones. Man-U has a combination of pure Messis, pure Beckhams, and hybrids of the two with varying degrees of genetic percentages. Fifteen of the Messi/Beckham clones are currently in their athletic primes, with another fifteen in grade school, preparing to take over when they come of age. A third crop of Messi/Beckham clones were bred last year.
As per the Messi Rule, the Cristiano Ronaldo clones will retain dual citizenship between Portugal and Italy. FIFA instituted the rule after the heated dispute between England and Argentina over which country the Messi clones should be eligible to play for in international competition. Since Messi’s DNA originated from Argentina, they thought they had a claim, but England insisted the clones should play for them since the Messis were genetically engineered, born, and raised in Manchester. FIFA decided that genetic clones would have dual citizenship, and each individual player would have the choice of which country to represent. Cloned players can have citizenship to more than two countries, depending on their genetic code. Of the nine Rooney/Ronaldinho hybrids genetically engineered by F.C. Barcelona, three play internationally for Spain, three for England, and three for Brazil.
Juventus has not stated how many Cristiano Ronaldo clones they will manufacture, or if they will splice his DNA with any of the other genetic NFTs they own, including Paolo Maldini, Gianluigi Buffon, and Ronaldo Nazário (creating the potential for a Ronaldo/Ronaldo hybrid). Whatever the case, as soon as the clones are born, Portugal and Italy will begin their recruitment campaigns to convince the Ronaldos to play for their respective countries in the World Cup. This leaves Neymar as the current most coveted genetic sequence in the soccer world, but the 79-year-old has not yet decided if he will sell his DNA as an NFT.