Ted Lasso star Cristo Fernández signs with El Paso Locomotive FC

Cristo Fernández turned a television role into a real roster spot in El Paso, where the USL Championship club signed the 35-year-old Mexican actor and former footballer after a two-month trial. Best known to U.S. audiences as Dani Rojas on Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso, Fernández moved from fiction to a professional deal that now awaits league and federation approval.

El Paso Locomotive FC announced the signing on May 12 and said the terms of the agreement would not be disclosed under club policy. Head coach Junior Gonzalez framed the move as more than a marketing stunt, saying Fernández is “a great addition” and adds “another attacking threat” to the roster. The club’s public test of his seriousness was unusually clear: Fernández spent two months on trial, became a regular presence in training and appeared in a preseason match against New Mexico United.

That path matters because Fernández arrived with real playing history, not just a celebrity connection. Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, he joined Tecos FC as a teenager at 15, before a knee injury cut short his career. His return to the professional game gives El Paso a forward who understands the sport from both sides of the camera, and gives the USL Championship a rare example of a scripted soccer persona becoming an actual contract.

The move also reflects how lower-division soccer in the United States can leverage star power without surrendering the sporting case for a signing. Fernández’s name will draw attention well beyond Texas, but the club’s decision rested on two months of daily evaluation, training-ground repetition and a preseason appearance rather than novelty alone. For El Paso, that balance is the point: celebrity can widen the spotlight, yet the roster spot still has to survive the demands of the league.

For Fernández, the signing closes a loop that began in Guadalajara and was interrupted by injury before it was revived in front of a global audience. Now the actor who made Dani Rojas a cultural touchstone has a chance to prove that the story can extend beyond a screenplay and into the standings.