Ted Lasso Got Its Biggest Cameo Appearance In Its Penultimate Episode – Here's Why It Matters
This post contains spoilers for "Ted Lasso" season 3, episode 11.
"Ted Lasso" has brought the world of association football to new audiences. Just like Grogu made a lot of people who don't care about "Star Wars" suddenly watch "The Mandalorian" because they liked the cute puppet, "Ted Lasso" mixed the thrills of the greatest sport with a compelling dramedy that knew when to poke fun at the more absurd things about football (like the off-side rule) while showing how exhilarating the sport is and how much it means to people.
Although the show does use real teams and real locations, "Ted Lasso" has largely stayed in its own little alternate universe for three seasons — until now.
Granted, season 3 has been a bit of a mixed bag, one that has somewhat left football behind and turned into a sermon of the week show, while also devoting far too much time on a redemption arc that hasn't felt earned. Indeed, the show seems to be forcing an ending on the audience (one that was impossible not to see coming). Before it bows out, however, "Ted Lasso" gave football fans one hell of a treat.
In the penultimate episode of the series, AFC Richmond faces its biggest threat, the team they haven't been able to come close to beating: Manchester City. As in real life, Manchester City are leading the Premier League, and the match isn't an easy one. Still, Richmond manages to win 2-0 after a fantastic and thrilling match, and we get a treat when Coach Lasso shakes hands with his rival coach, without a doubt the greatest cameo appearance this show has given us: Josep "Pep" Guardiola.
A football star
It is a fantastic moment, too. We see Ted go to shake the coach's hand, and see Guardiola tell his rival coach, "Don't worry about wins and losses." Indeed, Guardiola has his own Lasso-style wisdom to impart. "Just help these guys be the best version of themselves on and off the pitch. This, at the end, is the most important thing," he says.
Pep Guardiola has been mentioned a few times in "Ted Lasso," first as Jamie Tartt's former coach at Manchester City, as one of the all-time greatest football coaches, and as part of the Total Football presentation Beard gives. To see him be the first big football figure to appear on the show — not Zlatan, who heavily inspired the character of Zava, nor any other famous real-life football player, but a coach — is exciting, and makes a lot of sense.
Guardiola started his career playing in Barcelona under what was known as the Dream Team, but he is perhaps best known for leading Barcelona as a coach, taking the Total Football technique he learned as a player to win virtually every single title he could with the team. He became the youngest manager to win the Champions League, and lead Barcelona to win the "treble," meaning every major title a team can get, with victories at the national La Liga League, the Spanish Copa del Rey, and also the Champions League. He would later also lead Bayern Munich to multiple league victories before transferring to Manchester City, where he has also won multiple titles — including this year's Premier League.
He's not exactly a real-life Ted Lasso
Guardiola is sort of football's answer to Phil Jackson, a man who took advantage of a great budget and the best players around to make arguably the best team their respective sports have ever seen. The two even developed similar tactics based around passes (Guardiola's Tiqui-taca not being so dissimilar from the triangle offense). It makes sense, then, that both Lasso and Coach Beard squee in glee when the former meets Pep, as he is arguably the real-life version of Ted Lasso, a man known for fomenting teamwork, for being extremely calm, and for kindness.
Except, that last part is not exactly right. For one, Guardiola would probably never, ever say something like "Don't worry about wins and losses." Everything we know about the man shows he very much cares about winning, and only winning. Players have talked about Guardiola as a perfectionist, which is why he is so successful.
Then there's the Ted Lasso-like niceness in his cameo. While Guardiola has shown to be a good sportsman, and a generally calm person like Ted, he is also petty as hell. As GQ points out, he has celebrated goals in front of rival players, mocking them, he has refused to shake hands with rival coaches, and more. Pep Guardiola is definitely not Ted Lasso. If anything, he is Coach Beard, a man who seems nice enough, unless he has reason to dislike you. Then, beware.