American student revives London football club

With global interest in football at a peak, it is hard to imagine a time before the first FIFA World Cup in 1930.

Back at the grassroots of the game, a London club was formed that took football to the world - but it's long since been forgotten.

Now the East Sheen Football Club in Richmond is being revived by an American student dubbed "the real Ted Lasso", after the comedy-drama series filmed around London.

Matthew Evans says this is "just the beginning" and it would be the "absolute dream" to have an East Sheen player represent their country in a World Cup.

"I'd be absolutely lying if I didn't say that the goal was to take this as far as we can."

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".

We arranged for him to meet a legendary fan who has some experience of bringing football clubs back to life.

In 2002 the FA decided that having a football club in Wimbledon was not in the interests of the game and Wimbledon Town FC was moved to Milton Keynes, later renamed MK Dons.

Ivor Heller said "no" to that, and with the help of "righteous indignation" from fans, set up a new club in south-west London.

He said they started with nothing and people told them at the time, they were "potty".

But AFC Wimbledon is going strong decades later.

"We're still majority fan-owned - and that is a modern day miracle in football, in my opinion," added Heller.

"If you'd have said, 24 years ago, that we were going to be where we are now: in League One, in a state-of-the-art stadium, playing in front of over 8,000 people every single match, which is sold out - you'd go, 'you're completely insane'."

So could Evans do the same with East Sheen?

Heller says that in Wimbledon there was the benefit of "a fanbase that just needed activating", but he is impressed with Evans' mission.

He said: "If you've really got that drive and determination, it's amazing what you can do in football."

Heller also tells Evans: "I really admire what you're trying to do and I'd like to help you."

Reviving a heritage football club is Evans' way of giving back to a corner of London that has supported him as an immigrant and student, especially at a time when graduate jobs are increasingly scarce.

In words that echo the wisdom of the character, Ted Lasso, he said: "We're building the club with the ethos of using football as a vessel to make better people on and off the pitch.

"If we can just help to give some joy back, help build people up for that next stage in their career and life, I mean, what better calling is there than that?"

The challenges are vast - requiring perseverance, funding and having to hustle for space to train and play matches - but he has youth, energy and American pluck on his side.

As Ted once said: "You say impossible, but all I hear is 'I'm possible'."

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