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Lithuanian Soccer Team Finds Brilliant Way To Promote Women’s Sports By Inviting Jason Sudeikis To Coach Them
A Lithuanian soccer club has won the internet by finding a fun and unusual way to support women’s sports. They asked none other than Jason Sudeikis to stop pretending to be a football coach and become one for real.
Vilnius-based FK Žalgiris has formally invited the Ted Lasso star to take charge of its women’s team for an official match.
Highlights
- A Lithuanian women's team has invited Jason Sudeikis to coach them for an official match.
- The club says the campaign is designed to increase visibility for female players and Lithuanian soccer.
- Fellow 'Ted Lasso' actor Cristo Fernández already crossed into real professional football earlier this year.
The offer is considerably more serious than a celebrity photo opportunity. If Sudeikis accepts, the club says he will be given tactical freedom, take part in training, prepare the team for the match and make decisions from the sidelines alongside a professional coaching staff.
“At the end of the day, we want to prove that Vilnius, women’s football, and humor all belong on a global stage,” said club president Andrius Tapinas.
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The campaign has quickly traveled beyond Lithuania, helped by the obvious connection between the invitation and the fourth season of Ted Lasso, which currently sees Sudeikis’ character coaching a women’s team for the first time.
But club president Andrius Tapinas says the stunt has a more serious purpose beneath the humor.
“For us, it’s about putting the ‘Believe’ sign to work in the real world,” he said. “Our players are hungry for the sort of encouragement and fresh perspective that ‘Ted Lasso’ brings.”
Sudeikis first created Ted Lasso for NBC Sports promotional videos in 2013, playing an overly enthusiastic American football coach who is hired to manage a Premier League club despite knowing almost nothing about soccer.
The joke eventually became the foundation for the Apple TV show, which premiered in 2020 and transformed the character into an international television phenomenon.
The new installment premiered on August 5 and follows Ted as he returns to Richmond and takes charge of a second-division women’s football team, known as the Lady Greyhounds.
Apple described the assignment as his “biggest challenge yet,” with the season built heavily around women’s sport and the obstacles faced by female players.
Capitalizing on the show’s fourth season, the team produced a recruiting video asking Ted to join
FK Žalgiris, city tourism and business development agency Go Vilnius, and Lithuanian media organization Laisvės TV joined forces to send Sudeikis an official invitation on August 25.
The team produced a tongue-in-cheek recruitment video featuring Tapinas and members of the women’s team, deliberately recreating the optimistic spirit associated with Ted Lasso.
In the video, Tapinas first attempts the considerably more conventional approach of recruiting Spanish superstar Aitana Bonmatí, the three-time Ballon d’Or winner, before the club settles on another solution to improving its fortunes.
They need Ted.
“Ted, we know you’re very busy over there at Richmond, but we would love to invite you to Vilnius,” Tapinas says in the video, explaining that the club already has passionate supporters and talented players.
One of the Žalgiris goalkeepers then makes the case herself.
“We just need a little session with you, Ted, and I believe we’re going to win everything,” she says.
The campaign ends with a Vilnius choir repeating the message, “Ted Lasso, believe, come to Vilnius,” while the club recreates the yellow “Believe” sign that has become synonymous with the series.
Žalgiris also declared, “The players are ready. The stadium is ready. Vilnius is ready. Jason Sudeikis, bring Ted to Vilnius.”
The organizers confirmed that the campaign has already reached people close to the actor
Tapinas has been clear that attracting Sudeikis would be entertaining, but the idea was created primarily to put more attention on the women playing for Žalgiris.
“You know that famous yellow ‘Believe’ sign in Ted Lasso’s locker room?” he said in the Lithuanian announcement.
“We in Vilnius believe in Ted 100 percent, so we are offering him and the legendary Coach Beard a real challenge, a real team and a real A Lyga match.”
“The team is ready, the stadium is ready, and Vilnius is ready to prove that football and courage backed by a good dose of humor have no borders,” he added.
Go Vilnius communications director Eglė Girdzijauskaitė said the timing was particularly appropriate because of the women’s sports storyline currently running through Ted Lasso.
“Vilnius has always loved bold, slightly offbeat ideas that catch the world’s attention,” she said. “Ted Lasso’s season-long story celebrating women’s sports strikes a perfect chord with our team spirit.”
“We’re ready to deliver a weekend full of energy, fun, and football, and show off the side of Vilnius that keeps surprising people.”
In the original Lithuanian announcement, Girdzijauskaitė went further, saying the theme “ideally matches our desire to support and grow the visibility of women’s sports.”
She said organizers believe the campaign can attract international media attention while also giving millions of Ted Lasso viewers a reason to take an interest in both Vilnius and the players themselves.
Sudeikis would actually be allowed to run training and make tactical decisions
Should Sudeikis say yes, Žalgiris plans to follow through with the premise.
Organizers say he would be brought into the everyday life of the team rather than simply appearing at the stadium shortly before kickoff.
The proposed schedule includes a full week of training, preparing match tactics, directing warmups and coaching from the technical area during the league fixture.
The club has promised him full tactical freedom, although an experienced coaching staff would remain alongside him. Public events with supporters would also form part of the visit.
Sudeikis would not necessarily need to make the trip alone.
Brendan Hunt, who plays Ted’s longtime assistant Coach Beard and is also a co-creator of the series, has effectively been invited as well.
The organizers have even incorporated Beard’s eccentric television personality into the plan. Because the character is known for seeking out unusual experiences away from the football pitch, Vilnius says it is prepared to arrange an appropriately unconventional tour of the city for the pair.
There is also a personal connection behind the invitation, as Sudeikis has Lithuanian ancestry on his father’s side, giving the city an additional reason to make its pitch to him.
A Ted Lasso actor has already turned fiction into reality this year
The invitation would not even mark the first time in 2026 that someone from Ted Lasso crossed from fictional football into the real game.
Cristo Fernández, who played exuberant Mexican forward Dani Rojas on the series, signed professionally with El Paso Locomotive FC in May.
“Football has always been a huge part of my life and identity and no matter where life has taken me the dream of competing professionally never truly left my heart,” Fernández said when the deal was announced.
“Maybe I’m just a crazy man with crazy dreams.”
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