"My inner child is very happy." That's Cristo Fernández, 35, after signing a professional contract with El Paso Locomotive FC this week — not as a celebrity stunt, but as an actual roster player expected to earn minutes.
You probably know Fernández as Dani Rojas, the infectiously enthusiastic forward from all three seasons of Ted Lasso. What's easy to forget is that the role wasn't entirely fiction. Fernández grew up in Guadalajara playing seriously enough to earn a spot in a professional youth league at 15 — which meant leaving high school for night classes and giving his parents, in his words, "a heart attack."
A career interrupted, then rebuilt twice
Injuries ended that first run at pro football before it really started. He pivoted to acting, sold insurance for two years to fund his studies, moved to the UK without a work visa, and ground his way to Ted Lasso through years of near-misses. Then, somewhere in the middle of playing a footballer on television, he started wondering if he could actually be one again.
Last year he began trialling with USL clubs during preseason — training sessions, friendly matches, the whole process. El Paso Locomotive head coach Othoniel "Junior" Gonzalez was unambiguous about what he saw: "This isn't a gimmick for us. It's about the team and team first." Gonzalez described Fernández as an attacking player and goal scorer who offers depth at center forward and on the wing.
That framing matters. El Paso aren't signing him to sell shirts. If Gonzalez is slotting him into genuine positional depth, the question becomes how quickly Fernández can adapt to a professional tempo he hasn't played at since his teens. USL Championship is competitive enough that sentiment doesn't keep you on the pitch.
What the soccer community actually thinks
Reaction has been cautious but curious. Soccer analyst David Gass admitted he hadn't seen Fernández play but noted the signing "makes me think maybe there's a little bit more there than we realize." Joseph Lowery of Backheeled called the career arc genuinely unprecedented: a youth pro who walked away, became famous in another field entirely, and came back to sign another pro contract in his mid-thirties.
Lowery's right that there's no real parallel here. Fernández isn't a retired player making a farewell tour. He's someone who rebuilt himself completely — twice — and is now asking a professional club to trust the result.
Whether he earns regular playing time at El Paso remains Gonzalez's call, game by game. That's exactly how it should be.
