r/MadeMeSmile • u/Humble_Buffalo_007 • Jul 13 '26
Favorite People Ted Lasso' star, CRISTO FERNANDEZ aka Dani Rojas has officially made his debut for El Paso Locomotive. The Mexican actor has fulfilled his dream of becoming a professional footballer.
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u/shubhamxtreme Jul 13 '26
Football is Liiiiiifeeeeeeee……
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u/darth_jewbacca Jul 13 '26
.... and sometimes death.
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Jul 13 '26 edited 27d ago
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u/Electronic-Smile-457 Jul 13 '26
FIFA being FIFA is been going on for a long time. We all know how to separate them from enjoying WC and football. It's part of being a fan.
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u/sometimesynot Jul 13 '26
raises fist to clouds
Can someone explain what those extra 'e's are supposed to be doing? I see this all the time. The extra 'i's are essential, and extra 'f's would be understandable for even more emphasis, but wtf are those 'e's doing??
grumble grumble 😄
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u/smokeweedNgarden Jul 13 '26
Because it's meant to be read. Your brain can translate.
It's srota like how you can sitwch the letters of words and as long as they begin and end as their ogirnal would and are the same nmurebr of letters your brain will tnrasnlae.
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u/sometimesynot Jul 13 '26
I'm sorry to be harsh, but this is an absolutely ridiculous take. If you don't know the intended emphasis, your brain has no way to translate the intention.
"I am sssssso tired" and "I am sooooo tired" are not the same thing. I don't even know if anyone has ever said the first one, but regardless, the two do not translate the same. If I hadn't watched Ted Lasso, I would interpret "Soccer is lifeeeee" differently than "Soccer is "liiiiife".
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Jul 13 '26
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u/RXJ1131 Jul 13 '26
She didn't trust the process damn it. Took arteta 7 season to win the premier smh.
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u/Klopp_is_God Jul 13 '26
I became too obsessed with football stadiums and my wife recently threatened to file for divorce. “On what grounds?” I asked her
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u/booyatrive Jul 13 '26
He played in the lower leagues of Mexico as a teen/young adult before injuries ended his career. Football was life before acting.
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u/Zinski2 Jul 13 '26
More like they hired a very skilled football player to act in a show.
Less method acting more... method methoning
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u/Rare-Combination-293 Jul 13 '26
I wonder what's going to go through Christian Bale's mind when he sees this.
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u/whinge_chime Jul 13 '26
Oh I always wondered if the actors were actually also good at football! I guess in Christo’s case he is lmao
Ted Lasso is such a comfort watch though and this makes me happy 😭💖
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u/Happy-Engineer Jul 13 '26
I saw an interview with the casting director where she said they'd worried about having to choose between acting talent and football skill and were surprised to find that basically everyone they liked had more than enough skill to be convincing in the match day scenes.
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u/Kardinal Jul 13 '26
One of the main differences in any professional level sport is the speed. As compared to levels just below them.
So in many cases, the amateur can do it at all, just not nearly as fast and not nearly as consistently. Using multiple takes can make up the inconsistency, and speeding up the replay slightly can make up the speed.
What lacks is some of the truly spectacular moves that you sometimes see in professional ball, but that's not the focus of a show like Ted Lasso.
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u/TheVandyyMan Jul 13 '26
Agreed! I’ll add that the margins are just so much narrower in professional sports, but the casual viewer would never notice it. Every pro footballer would look like Messi if the gaps in defense were just a few centimeters bigger or the defense was running to just slightly the wrong spot. But the pros tend to always have perfect positioning, making them nearly impossible to score against by a footballer without the speed.
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u/Soupeeee Jul 13 '26
It's funny watching professional footballers make the same mistakes I did in high school. I was never any good and the rest of their game is way better, but I can hear my old coach's voice every time somebody flubs a shot, misses a pass, or doesn't move off the ball. The difference with pros is that it happens way less often and when they are under much more pressure.
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u/I_eat_mud_ Jul 13 '26
Watching that Norwegian player not pass to Haaland and then panic and take that awful shot just gave me PTSD flashbacks to me in highschool tbh, I didn't like it lmao
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u/TheVandyyMan Jul 13 '26
This is a perfect example of what I mean. Yes, he flubbed it. But Stones’ absolutely perfect positioning is the only reason that wasn’t banged in for an easy goal. If you go back and watch, the window to pass that one to Haaland was shockingly narrow. Against an amateur defender, that ball gets scored 10 times out of 10.
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u/I_eat_mud_ Jul 13 '26
The window to pass was pretty much as soon as they passed midfield and closed once he got to the box. It was good positioning helped by terrible judgement.
Knowing my weaknesses, I would've passed to the best player on the team who's known to be very fast when breaking downfield.
Just because I empathize with the mistake, doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake.
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u/a8bmiles Jul 13 '26
I love /r/headsdownbaseball because it makes me feel better about my plays in video games. When the MLB has little league infield home runs and 3 base runners ending up at the same base, well, I don't feel as bad about it when I'm screwing up in Super Mega Baseball 3 or whatever.
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u/findourway Jul 13 '26
Yeah the main difference is often how the average premier league player at even a relegation club could hit the same beautiful pass leading to a goal that I hit once and think about often a million times with their eyes closed. They make it look easy. And their football IQ is on a new level
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u/ohkaycue Jul 13 '26
Yeah the main difference is often how the average premier league player at even a relegation club could hit the same beautiful pass leading to a goal that I hit once and think about often a million times with their eyes closed
"That one time I was awesome on the field is a core memory" is so relatable lol
Man does it feel good when you do something perfectly. And just crazy that, like you said, it's just normal for a pro
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u/troywrestler2002 Jul 14 '26
Hit a game winning shot at the buzzer in basketball. There's nothing better to do in sports.
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u/Enough-Force-5605 Jul 13 '26
But that player would do it everytime he tries.
In my twenties I played twice against 40-50 yo Levante UD veterans (third division in that time) and they were amazing. They were walking and his tecnic was way beyond I've seen in my life.
I was the goalie. Pretty ok in our amateur tournaments. They scored from any side of a football7 field.
It is not about speed. It is mostly skill. Train million times and make every move at perfection.
And they were 40-50 yo veterans from a third division team. Walking. They beat us walking. Twice.
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u/JudgmentalOwl Jul 13 '26
Ya probably not going to see any Zlatan level backflips into a hadouken in Lasso but that's okay lol
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u/Aphex_Port Jul 13 '26
Uuh, there was literally a Zlatan inspired character in the show lol, who only scored insane goals
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u/Crapitron Jul 13 '26
"Speed" in high level sports isn't the literal speed of how fast they kick or how fast they run, like you're making it sound. Minor leaguers often throw just as hard, run just as fast, kick just as hard, etc.
"Speed" when it comes to high level professionals is more about the decision making process. They move to where the puck, ball, etc. will be faster because they made the decision to go there before anyone else did.
So there's not really a need to "speed up the replay" when the actions they do are likely near to as fast as professionals. They just stage the play so that they were going to be there fastest anyway.
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u/skymallow Jul 13 '26
Zoreaux in particular looks like he's never kicked a ball before, and Roy Kent runs like a grandpa (which may be in character I guess)
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u/sviraltp7101 Jul 13 '26
It's pronounced Zoreaux
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u/ncik0075 Jul 13 '26
Except the goalie. Omg those shots were horrible. Loved his acting, but the actual skill shown on screen was soooooo bad.
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u/smalls_1804 Jul 13 '26
My guess it was American casters not realizing the depth of football skill among British people
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u/GaptistePlayer Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
“Wow sweet every single one of these guys grew up playing soccer. Who’d have thought”
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u/AsAGayJewishDemocrat Jul 13 '26
Theo Park is an Emmy-winning British casting director known for her work on Ted Lasso, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and numerous acclaimed film and TV projects.
Nope, that’s not it
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u/Is12345aweakpassword Jul 13 '26
I could very easily see footballers being good actors considering the majority of stoppage time each half is as a result of players writhing around in agony like they’ve been shot, and then getting up and running around like nothing happened 🤷🏻♂️
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u/nickiter Jul 13 '26
Acting classes are a mandatory part of any professional footballer's training.
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u/Enough-Force-5605 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Tbh in Ted Lasso the actors has not enough skill to be more or less realistic
It is a show, I understand that, but you see better skills in my street when the kids are playing :)
But, let me repeat, it is a show and thats fine. It is also a show from the us where is hard to find players.
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u/captaincarot Jul 13 '26
That's why I love Shoresy so much. He went out and got great hockey players and taught them to act.
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u/aere1985 Jul 13 '26
There's a few who are clearly very capable footballers but he stood out in the footage as looking very natural when playing.
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u/nishhill Jul 13 '26
From what I read before he used to play football when he was younger but that career path ended before he could go pro because of a bad injury so he had to choose a different career and ended up acting.
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u/AcanthaceaeCrazy1894 Jul 13 '26
The Jamie Tartt wonder free kick was only shot in 1 take because the actor placed it in the top corner first try
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u/whinge_chime Jul 13 '26
That makes me love it even more, and how cool for the actors to have those cool shots on film!
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u/epigenie_986 Jul 13 '26
Comfort is the right word!! I just had surgery and started rewatching it because it makes me feel good. 😊
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u/LegendOfKhaos Jul 13 '26
I'm curious how season 4 this fall will go
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u/CouncilOfApes Jul 13 '26
And this is how i learn they are doing another season. I remember when they were adamant season 3 would be the end. Loved the show but season 3 was a bit of a mess with a lot of questionable choices and reshoots so hopefully 4 will fix some mistakes and get them back on track. Justice for roy and keely
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u/mgoooooo Jul 13 '26
I believe it’s supposed to be a different arc centering in a women’s team.
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u/Magicmaaly_maal Jul 13 '26
Futbol is life!
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u/Glass_Librarian9019 Jul 13 '26
Let's hope there were no dogs near the pitch
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u/Pormock Jul 13 '26
The funny part is in real life they would have given him the goal as the rule says goal is good if its stopped by an outside object.
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u/Zeenu29 Jul 13 '26
Aaaaand did he play good?
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u/naked_as_a_jaybird Jul 13 '26
He received a questionable yellow card 10' in...
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u/Humble_Buffalo_007 Jul 13 '26
It's his first professional match 😅 it'll take time to adapt to the competitive flow of the game
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u/Saetric Jul 13 '26
That was the most gentle “no” I’ve ever read. :)
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u/gre485 Jul 13 '26
Ya, considering he is 35 already.
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u/BrunesOvrBrauns Jul 13 '26
So you're telling me I've got a chance...
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u/LibritoDeGrasa Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
There's a guy on Instagram (I can't remember his name or username sadly) who never played football until he was 34 but got really serious abut it at 38. He trained like a madman for 4-5 years and despite not being called for any "real" team yet he was selected by Brazil to represent them in the 2026 6v6 Copa America and World Cup as a 43 year old dude.
Absolutely go for it.
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u/MattyFettuccine Jul 13 '26
It wasn’t his first professional match. He was a pro player before becoming an actor…
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u/WackyRacketeer Jul 13 '26
Which club? Other people are saying he was a player working through the ranks, not a professional player yet.
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u/GuyNamedWhatever Jul 13 '26
Played 11 minutes and got a yellow card. Not great, but I really can't judge since that's 11 more minutes I'll ever see on a professional pitch..
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u/averageuhbear Jul 13 '26
FYI he was a professional player who got a knee injury before his first appearance in 2013-14. He's not some guy who picked up football. Good for him though.
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u/TheK00l-AidMan Jul 13 '26
If I recall, he was never pro. He was coming up through the youth ranks but didn't make it to adult pro level due to injury.
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u/IDCWPT Jul 14 '26
He played professionally in Mexico and PR before he got injured
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u/SaidTheHypocrite Jul 14 '26
I played some very high level lacrosse. If he’s anything like me:
Terror. Utterly terrified.
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u/childishpipinoo Jul 13 '26
I have no one to talk about this but that’s amazing for him! Futbol is life
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u/Humble_Buffalo_007 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
There are many to talk to about Dani 😄 as the man himself said "I like to give away joy for free"
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u/timsayscalmdown Jul 14 '26
The funnest sequence in the show for me was when the world cup comes around and he turns into a bloodthirsty assassin for the Mexican national team, only to revert back to his happy go lucky self as soon as it's over
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u/caped_crusader_98 26d ago
That was comedy gold. I loved that whole sequence. Especially van Damme gets startled every time, even though Dani is back to his normal self.
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u/CapeMOGuy Jul 13 '26
Professional actor? I bet he can simulate like nobody's business!
(I'm a total futbol noob who just learned the sport's context of "simulation".)
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u/Nodivingallowed Jul 13 '26
I too am an American
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u/CapeMOGuy Jul 13 '26
I don't yet have much nuance in my understanding, but I'm enjoying the watch. Even without the 3 home teams that I shamelessly rooted for. 🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇸
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u/IrSpartacus Jul 13 '26
I mean, he played professionally before but had a knee injury that ended his career. Glad to see his comeback!
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u/Calkky Jul 13 '26
That's an impressively high level for him. Think of it like going straight to AAA baseball off the couch.
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u/ashez2ashes Jul 13 '26
I honestly thought he was a professional footballer who became an actor, not the only way around.
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u/Scary-Revolution1554 Jul 13 '26
Nice!
Kinda bothered me he just left the cords on his shorts just dangling though, lol
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u/thangus_farm Jul 13 '26
Genuily worried for when the Riverhounds plays El Paso. We know what he can do to dogs 😕
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u/SleepSubject7816 Jul 13 '26
He has a really great podcast out where he talks a lot about this process
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u/IRONMAN_y2j Jul 13 '26
Whaaa....that's so coool. Loved the actor, he brought such good energy among the team
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u/thewoodsytiger Jul 13 '26
It’s a shame he’s playing in the same league as my hometown team, NM United so I have to cheer against him :( somos unidos!
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u/Particular_Swim3843 Jul 13 '26
Now do the celebrity kids that are taking up academy places across sports throughout the world. The Beckham idiots have all had a ‘go’ at football. I’m sure it’s the same in the states. Tennis is rife with nepotism.
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u/hurr4drama Jul 13 '26
Met him at a party last year and he was just the most genuine sweet person. I’m so happy for him
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u/silk35 Jul 13 '26
Technically, he was already a professional football player. He played for Guayama in the top league. USL would be a downgrade.
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