Ted Lasso’s Dani Rojas could actually become a professional soccer player

Football is life. And for Cristo Fernández, it might be about to become his job again.

Fernández, best known for playing the joyously unhinged Dani Rojas on Ted Lasso, is on trial with USL Championship side El Paso Locomotive FC and could sign a professional contract in the coming week. According to Goal’s Tom Hindle, Fernández logged 30 minutes for El Paso in a preseason win over New Mexico United over the weekend and was photographed celebrating with his teammates afterward. The club is expected to make a decision before the regular season gets underway.

It wasn’t his only audition. Alex Calabrese of MenInRed97 Media reported that Fernández also played for Chicago Fire II in recent weeks, even scoring a goal in a preseason friendly. So he’s been making the rounds.

Fernández, who is 35, was actually a serious soccer player before he was an actor. Growing up in Guadalajara, Mexico, he played for Estudiantes Tecos — a now-defunct Liga MX squad— working his way through the third and second divisions before a serious knee injury at 15 derailed a once-promising playing career. He eventually played in Puerto Rico’s top division for Guayama FC before moving to the United Kingdom to pursue an acting degree, which led to Ted Lasso, which led to playing a fictional Mexican striker for a fictional Premier League club, which has now apparently led to this.

Ted Lasso Season 4 is already in production, with Ted returning to Richmond to coach a second division women’s team. For a show that seemed finished after Season 3 — Sudeikis himself said it was the end of the story he wanted to tell — the revival came together relatively quickly once he broke the news on New Heights with the Kelce brothers early last year. The core cast is back, with the notable exception of Phil Dunster, whose scheduling conflicts prevented him from returning as Jamie Tartt full-time. Whether Fernández factors into any of it is unknown. Still, his trying to become a professional soccer player — the real version of the character he played for three seasons — right as the show is coming back, is a pretty good plot twist regardless.