For how much fun just about everyone has when they watch Ted Lasso, it turns out the beloved Apple TV+ program starring Jason Sudeikis might be a bit of a headache for American soccer coaches abroad. That’s according to Jesse Marsch, the Wisconsin native who was named the manager of Premier League side Leeds United earlier this week.
“I think there’s probably a stigma,” Marsch told the media on Thursday about how American managers are perceived by Europeans. “I’m not sure ‘Ted Lasso’ helped. I haven’t watched the show, but I get it, I get it. People hate hearing the word soccer. I’ve used the word ‘football’ since I was a professional football player. I think, more and more in the States, we’re adapting to what the game here is in England, and our connection to what this league is and what the culture of the sport is in this country.”
The comments from Marsch come weeks after a report indicated that one American assistant coach in the Premier League, Manchester United’s Chris Armas, is compared to the fictional football-turned-football coach.
Sources told ESPN that some players on the training ground have jokingly likened Armas to fictional soccer coach Ted Lasso, the hapless American parachuted in to manage fictional side AFC Richmond in the hit Apple+ comedy show.
Marsch is the third American to serve as a manager in the Premier League and the first since January of 2019. After a lengthy playing career in Major League Soccer and spending the first seven years of his managerial career in the United States, Marsch made the jump to Austria to take over Red Bull Salzburg. He was eventually appointed the manager of RB Leipzig in Germany’s Bundesliga and took over the club in July 2021, but the sides mutually parted ways on Dec. 5 of the same year.
One of the most historic sides in England, Leeds was a Premier League staple before falling onto financial hard times and spending more than a decade in lower leagues right after the turn of the millennium. They returned to the Prem in 2020 under the guidance of revered manager Marcelo Bielsa, but this year, injuries and a general struggle to play Bielsa’s hyper-demanding system have led to the team finding itself in 16th, just two points above 18th place Burnley for the final relegation spot in the English top flight. As such, Bielsa’s time as manager came to an end, leading to the club appointing Marsch.
“All I can say is the only way I know how to do things is to go all-in, to give everything I have, to believe in who I am, to believe in the people that I work with, and to try to maximize what we are every day,” Marsch said on Thursday. “And I find if you can do that effectively, that you can be incredibly surprised with the human spirit and what you can achieve. So, that sounds like Ted Lasso, I think, from what I’ve heard.”
