Ted Lasso actor to launch football career with second tier club

Mexican actor Cristo Fernandez is rumoured to be training with American second-tier club El Paso Locomotive and is “likely” to be signed in a playing capacity.

The 35-year-old is best known for his role as the exuberant Dani Rojas in Apple TV’s popular Ted Lasso show, but Fernandez’s love for soccer is very real and extends beyond his acting career.

As a teenager, Fernandez played for Club Deportivo Estudiantes Tecos in his native Guadalajara before a knee injury cut his playing career short. It was only after this disappointment that the Mexican chose to pursue acting.

“My grandma and my mom used to say, ‘Cristobal only speaks, breaths, talks, dreams, everything futbol’ – soccer was literally my life,” he recounted in an interview with NBC in 2021.

Though his dream of becoming a footballer was shattered as a teenager, Fernandez may now have the opportunity to play professionally after all, albeit likely only temporarily.

Fernandez to sign for El Paso?

Supporters of USL Championship franchise El Paso Locomotive have spotted Rojas training with the club ahead of the start of the new season, which is slated to kick off on 7 March.

El Paso have yet to officially address this, but fan podcast Seriously Loco reports that it has heard “rumours” about Fernandez’s potential involvement with the team for some time.

In a follow-up post on X, Seriously Loco wrote: “We were expecting the club to say something first, but we have it on good authority that he is likely signing with the club in a playing capacity.”

This would be a remarkable development, although it is perhaps just a short-term publicity stunt. It is difficult to imagine Fernandez starting a full-time soccer career at 35. USL’s roster rules are not as stringent as in MLS, so experiments like this should not actively hurt the club.

Fernandez would not be the first celebrity to attempt to belatedly launch a soccer career. Usain Bolt famously tried to become a professional footballer at 32 when he had a trial with the Central Coast Mariners in Australia in 2018. He soon realised, however, that this was easier said than done.

It would be a welcome media distraction for USL, which continues to be locked in tense negotiations with the players’ union over a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Following the league’s rejection of the USLPA’s latest CBA proposal, the union authorised a strike, potentially jeopardising the start of the new season.

El Paso finished fourth in the Western Conference in the second-tier Championship in 2025. However, they did not get far in the playoffs after losing to Phoenix Rising in the conference quarter-final.

Locomotive currently have several high-profile players on their roster, such as former USMNT striker Rubio Rubin, El Salvador international Armando Moreno and long-time MLS defender Tony Alfaro. They are reportedly also likely to sign Diego Pepi, the brother of USMNT and PSV star Ricardo.

It will be interesting to see how this story develops. Anything other than a short-term contract for Fernandez and perhaps an ownership stake in the club would be a major surprise.

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