Ted Lasso actor makes his pro soccer debut - and it's a disaster

Analysis

Tom Weber | Writer

Multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer.

Actor Cristo Fernandez made his El Paso Locomotive debut in the USL Cup on Saturday.

The 35-year-old has fulfilled his dream of launching a soccer career, albeit belatedly. Fernandez, who is best known for playing Dani Rojas in the hit Apple TV series Ted Lasso, is now officially a professional athlete.

The Mexican signed for El Paso in the second-tier USL Championship in May after a two-month trial period. Fans spotted Fernandez training with Locomotive in pre-season at the end of February, prompting the club to confirm that there was a chance of him getting signed.

A few weeks earlier, Fernandez had trialled with the MLS Next Pro team of the Chicago Fire. A soccer fanatic since childhood, the Guadalajara-native previously played for the youth teams of Mexican club Tecos as a teenager before a serious knee injury prompted him to pivot to acting.

After almost two months of radio silence, El Paso announced in May that Fernandez had been signed to play as a forward. It is understood that he is on a standard one-year contract. Now, after another two months, he has made his highly anticipated debut.

Can an actor play pro soccer?

On Saturday, the 35-year-old came on as a 79th-minute substitute for El Paso against rivals New Mexico United in the final group stage match of this year's USL Cup. The game was scoreless and looked on course to go to penalties when he entered.

Neither club had a chance of winning Group 2 because both had suffered defeats to the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, who would have advanced as the top-seeded team even if they had lost to Orange County due to the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Nevertheless, the game was not completely meaningless because a resounding victory could have sealed progression to the knockout phase for either side as the best runner-up of the seven groups based on goals scored.

So, when Fernandez came on to replace star forward Rubio Rubin, his mission was clear: to score goals. Unfortunately, the 5,000 fans at Southwest University Park were not treated to a vintage performance. In fact, the 35-year-old's debut could hardly have gone worse.

Wearing the No.91 shirt (the year of his birth), Fernandez played as a lone striker. However, all the excitement around his debut quickly dissipated when New Mexico scored in the 85th minute.

After chasing several lost causes, his first proper action of the match came two minutes later. He had yet to actually touch the ball when he received a yellow card for bumping the goalkeeper while trying to reach an overhit cross.

He followed that up by failing to play a one-two with Jimmy Farkarlun with his first touch. New Mexico doubled their lead in the 89th minute, and the ensuing kick-off was Fernandez's second touch of the ball.

His third touch, though, was undoubtedly the highlight of his performance: he played a nice first-time pass to Armando Moreno, which allowed El Paso to spring an attack. But the move came to nothing.

Fernandez ended his 16-minute cameo with three touches and one yellow card to his name, while El Paso suffered their first Derby Del Camino Real defeat of the season and exited the USL Cup.

It certainly wasn't the most impactful or exciting performance, but considering that Fernandez had not played any kind of competitive football in over a decade, he did not look out of his depth. His movement was good for a 35-year-old debutant, although you'd be well-advised not to bet your house on him winning a footrace.

It must be noted that he can't be blamed for any of New Mexico's goals, and his teammates didn't do him any favours. The aforementioned Moreno had a couple of opportunities to try and get the ball to Fernandez but opted not to.

El Paso's next match is a USL Championship clash with FC Tulsa on Saturday. Having initially enjoyed a good start to the season, Locomotive have struggled to get results in recent weeks, so the club - and Fernandez - will be hoping for a more positive outing next week.