The real Ted Lasso? American student revives London football club

Dressed in a smart new kit, the East Sheen FC team is warming up for a training session, among the dog walkers in Palewell Park.

First things first – they have to construct the goals, so a player unrolls and ties the net into place.

Watching on as his players take to the “pitch” is the club’s new owner from Charleston, South Carolina in the US.

Evans is a self-professed football geek and when he stumbled across East Sheen’s history, he said it seemed “just too good to be true”.

The club was established in 1873 and folded in 1906. During its life, the club made a huge contribution to the game in the 1880s, touring abroad across the former British Empire, playing in one of the first ever international tournaments and producing two England captains.

“There was an opportunity here to bring something back that was really important, that really mattered,” Evans said.

“We’re talking about a club that codified the rules of law for Surrey football and was part of the early Victorian/Edwardian elites of football.

“The fact that they’re gone and honestly forgotten about – it pained me.”

A graduate from the University of Roehampton, Evans registered a company for £15, got a website and social media up and running and assembled his team.

I asked as we began the interview, what title I should give him and he joked: “The beauty of non-league football at this level is that you do a few things. So we’ll go with: chairman, owner, club director – and people right now call me the real-life Ted Lasso.”

Ted Lasso is a series made by Doozer Productions, in association with Warner Bros for Apple TV. The show is about an inexperienced soccer coach from Kansas City, Missouri, who takes over an English football team called AFC Richmond.

We talked to Evans at the SkyEX Community Stadium in west London, the home of Hayes and Yeading United FC.

It is where training scenes are filmed for the show.

So I ask him: “Are you the real Ted Lasso?”

Evans says laughing: “Once you get that name put on you, it’s almost a bit of an honour… there are too many similarities there to not lean into.”

But he says he will not be coaching and instead will be “firmly planted behind the scenes, helping grow the club”.