LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: "Football is life," a mantra that a young and spirited player from Mexico, Dani Rojas keeps repeating in ‘Ted Lasso'. When he joins the fictional club of AFC Richmond in the Premier League coached by Ted, he chants this motto every time he scores in training. His chirpy and cheerful nature is infectious and anyone watching the show will eventually fall in love with this long-hair, clean-shaven footballer who can barely stitch a few words in English together.
‘Ted Lasso’ follows the life of an American soccer coach who lands on the shores of England with little to no knowledge of the country and a handful of football tricks up his sleeve. Through his relentless optimism, Ted finds ways to bind the club together and eventually fights for the title in English top-flight football. The show has a few characters that embody the traits of legendary football players. Like Roy Kent. He is simply a persona of Manchester United legend, Roy Keane or Jamie Tartt who looks like the perfect mix of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jack Grealish and comes across as a total footballing diva. In the third season, the show also brought a rendition of the great Zlatan Ibrahimovic with a character named Zava. However, the hit American show added another cast member in its first season. This was a player from the foreign land of Mexico named Dani Rojas. For die-hard fans of the Premier League, Dani echoed a face of a player they were accustomed to a decade ago.
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Who is the inspiration behind Dani Rojas?
Cristo Fernandez plays Dani Rojas in the show who enters the pitch in the first season shouting his name, “Daaanii Rojaass!” He continues to chant until he greets everyone on the pitch and then scores a sumptuous goal to impress everyone including Ted. His energetic stance and contagious passion are liked by everyone which is also a huge trait present in many Latin players. Dani beat Richmond’s star striker, Jamie in a crossbar challenge and even scored a goal with his face, adding to his cool and breezy persona. He’s always happy and emotional.
However, Dani’s persona and qualities remind the fans of another real-life footballer named Javier Chicharito Fernandez who played for Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson from 2010 to 2015. Chicharito was the face of the new generational players in Mexican football and ensured that the national team played with immense passion. Chicharito went on to play for Bayer Leverkusen in Germany, returned to West Ham United in the Premier League, and then flew to play for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer in the US. However, Dani still resides at AFC Richmond.
What are the similar qualities between Dani Rojas and Chicharito?
Like Chicharito, Dani is also from Guadalajara, Mexico. They both left their homes to play in England. Chicharito was a formidable striker in the Premier League with Manchester United in his first season. Dani’s introduction on the show was described as a lethal striker who will help Richmond boost their goal tally. Both possess a similar striker quality in the box and an innate trait to score beautiful headers. Dani is equally passionate as Chicharito, an exceptional team player, and a positive character to be around. Keeping their technical qualities aside, Dani and Chicharito appear to have been made from the same cloth of passion that doesn’t die.
The reel and real are at times hard to tell apart but ‘Ted Lasso’ has done an incredible job of making its characters imitate life, begging the notion of “Art imitates life’ to be heard once again.
