Actor Jason Sudeikis, who plays the American college football coach trying to conquer English soccer in the smash hit streaming comedy, grew up close to the Three Lions’ US training camp
England are set to get a World Cup pep talk from Ted Lasso. Actor Jason Sudeikis, 50, who plays the American college football coach trying to conquer English soccer in the smash hit Apple TV+ comedy, went to school down the road from the Three Lions’ US training camp in Kansas City.
Sources say the star is set to visit Thomas Tuchel ’s squad before their opening group match against Croatia on June 17. Though born in Virginia, Sudeikis moved to Johnson County, Kansas, with his family as a child and has described it as his hometown.
He graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School and attended Fort Scott Community College on a basketball scholarship but left before finishing and started performing stand-up comedy in Kansas City clubs.
A source said: “Just about every footballer in the world has seen Ted Lasso. Getting a team talk from him in typically wacky style could be just what the players need to ease some of those pre-match nerves.”
It would not be the first time Sudeikis has backed the England team. He showed solidarity with the three Three Lions’ players racially abused for missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final by wearing a sweatshirt bearing their names.
The actor turned up at an event in West Hollywood celebrating the TV’s show’s second season wearing a that read: “Jadon & Marcus & Bukayo.”
Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford missed penalties as England lost to Italy in the Wembley final which finished 1-1 after extra-time.
Amid national despair online racist abuse of the players caused huge anger and controversy. Sudeikis said he decided to wear the sweatshirt ‘just in support of the three fellas from the English team in the Euro final’.
“They’ve caught a lot of unnecessary guff from unnecessary people,” he said.
“I’m just giving them a holler, letting them know that even over here in the States we have our own issues with what they’re going through and let them know that they’re not alone.”
In the aftermath of the final defeat a mural of Rashford in Manchester was defaced.
On Twitter Rashford said he would ‘never apologise for who I am and where I came from’.
Sudeikis’s gesture was widely celebrated online.
Roger Bennett, one of the ‘Men in Blazers’ at the forefront of English football coverage in the US, wrote: “Huge love for Jason Sudeikis’s sweatshirt…shows that like his character, he truly understands that football…is all about human goodness.”
Michele Norris, a Washington Post columnist, said: “Yet another reason to love Jason Sudeikis. At Ted Lasso season two premiere he showed support for Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka because of course that is what Ted would do.”