New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nFernandez, 35, impressed enough in the two-month trial to earn a pro deal.<\/p>\n
He revealed he never gave up his dream of playing professionally, despite his acting career shooting him to fame as he played Dani Rojas in Ted Lasso between 2020 and 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball has always been a huge part of my life and identity, and no matter where life has taken me, the dream of competing professionally never truly left my heart,\u201d said Fernandez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m incredibly grateful to El Paso Locomotive FC \u2013 the club, coaches, staff, and especially my teammates \u2013 for opening the doors and giving me the opportunity to compete from day one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis journey back to professional soccer is about believing in yourself, taking risks, and continuing to chase your dreams no matter how unexpected the path may be.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I\u2019m just a crazy man with crazy dreams… so being here with the \u2018Locos\u2019 actually makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true, it\u2019s hard to put into words. It has been lots of hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fernandez is not the only one delighted to have secured a contract.<\/p>\n
Fans of the show are buzzing for the Mexican actor, with many responding to the news by quoting a famous line from his character Rojas: \u201cFootball is life\u201d.<\/p>\n
One fan wrote: \u201cOkay this cool\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another added: \u201cReal method actor, stays in character even after filming. Respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third commented: \u201cFootball really is life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally published as Ted Lasso star Cristo Fernandez signs for professional football club following two month trial<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ted Lasso actor Cristo Fernandez has signed a professional contract with American second-tier football club El Paso Locomotive.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-669919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}