{"id":370509,"date":"2026-07-12T20:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/370509\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T20:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T20:45:09","slug":"ted-lasso-star-makes-his-professional-soccer-debut-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/370509\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ted Lasso’ star makes his professional soccer debut in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Ted Lasso” star Cristo Fern\u00e1ndez made his long-awaited professional soccer debut for the El Paso Locomotive this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez, known for playing the character Dani Rojas in the Apple TV series, signed for the Texas team<\/a> in May but took the field for the first time on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old from Guadalajara subbed on for Locomotive\u00a0FC in the 79th minute of their USL Cup game against New Mexico United.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat everybody came to see tonight at Southwest University Park in downtown El Paso,\u201d a commentator\u00a0said as Fern\u00e1ndez entered the match, in a video clip posted by the Prinx Tires USL Cup account<\/a> on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fans celebrated on social media by quoting\u00a0Rojas’ trademark line from the show: \u201cF\u00fatbol is life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before pursuing acting, Fern\u00e1ndez was a promising youth soccer player in the academy of\u00a0Tecos F\u00fatbol Club. Injuries put an end to his athletic career as a teenager \u2014 until he was spotted playing a preseason match for Locomotive FC last spring. He signed with the club after a two-month trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cF\u00fatbol 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 Fern\u00e1ndez said in a statement in May. \u201cMaybe I\u2019m just a crazy man with crazy dreams \u2026 so being here with the \u2018Locos\u2019 actually makes perfect sense. \u00a1Vamos Locos!\u201d<\/p>\n

The game was tied at 0-0 when\u00a0Fern\u00e1ndez took the field, but New Mexico United scored twice in the last five minutes to beat El Paso.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to a news release from the team,\u00a0Fern\u00e1ndez received a yellow card for a foul in the game’s 87th minute.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez\u00a0and the\u00a0team come to the Alamo City next month to face league rivals San Antonio\u00a0FC on Aug. 15 at Toyota Field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Ted Lasso” star Cristo Fern\u00e1ndez made his long-awaited professional soccer debut for the El Paso Locomotive this weekend.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-370509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}