Movies and television have wanted to bring sports-related stories to the screen countless times. Some of them are based on real events, some are just fiction. Most of them, however, touched all of us, some less, some more.

Boxing has usually paid tribute, especially in the US, boxers have always been an inspiration to the lower classes of society who have seen kids who started from scratch succeed. This is how films such as The Evil Idol remained in history, which Martin Scorsese initially did not want to make because he did not like boxing, or Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man, a director who successfully translated sports stories several times, followed by a very good “Rush” with the legendary fight between Niki Lauda and James Hunt in Formula 1. The list is huge and everyone can choose according to their desire and mood. Fire Roads, Coach Carter, Million Dollar Baby, Ford v Ferrari, Ali, Hurricane, Every Sunday, Love Affair, Rocky, Goal, Big escape 11″, “Moneyball”, etc.

During the pandemic, the Apple platform brought into our TV life an American with a funny mustache and accent, who decided to accept a very strange offer. Leave American football and the team he coached to lead a small to mid-sized Premier League team with his assistant. Ted Lasso had no idea what football was, how it was played, what offside was and, of course, he had no idea that Richmond’s president didn’t want, at least in the first round, to succeed in his mission. On the contrary, she wanted to disband the group she had taken from her husband in the division of their property after a disorderly divorce.

Anyone who sees Ted Lasso as a football series will be disappointed. Its purpose is not to place the viewer in the recesses of a club that is acrobatic between the big division of England and the Championship. It doesn’t teach systems, purely competitive scenes don’t qualify for an Oscar, there are many gaps as far as football reality goes, like how an American football coach coaches a European football team as he doesn’t hold UEFA. diploma and more.

But Ted Lasso is not exactly a football show. Maybe, if you like, football is a showcase that hides the daily lives of all of us. The series aired during the pandemic and quarantine. A period when everyone was looking for somewhere to feed themselves in order to face an unprecedented reality. Like the protagonist of the series. And for him, the fact that he lived in London, cut off from his family, in a special private retreat, was unprecedented. He didn’t know football and, in fact, never did. But he did not need to, since he guided his wards through his own philosophy of life, making those around him better people. From the president to his players. He got through relegation with humour, united his players during difficult times and will send his own message not only to the locker room but to the whole community when one of them comes out as gay in a space that for many is unattached like a football team.

Jason Sudeikis has never been a popular actor. In Greece, he became better known with Horrible Bosses, where he was overshadowed by actors such as Colin Farrell and Kevin Spacey, while he was reintroduced to us in We’re the Millers, along with Jennifer Aniston, with whom he also played in the aforementioned film. Two good comedies to enjoy.

This is how Ted Lasso begins his journey. At first it just looks like a series to pass the time or the days of the pandemic. But along the way, and through his antics, many of which are based on old American TV shows or movies, Ted Lasso proves it’s more than that. This is a lesson in optimism that even the best psychologist often fails to offer.

An American with a funny mustache and accent is not as ignorant as it seems at first glance. He is the friend we all wish we could brighten up even on our darkest day. The plot won’t place the show in the pantheon of the best, but it will definitely put it in the hearts of viewers, leaving everyone with a huge smile at the end of each episode.

After all, it was there from the very beginning that Ted Lasso was bet on as an idea and she completely found her goal.