Ted Lasso season 3 episode 2: Who is Zava, & who’s he based on?
Also, while the character is purely fictional, we don’t think it is that hard to see some parallels between the egocentric player and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a famed footballer with a knack for confidence and/or speaking his mind. (We should note that the producers have not confirmed this.) Zava is an amusing addition to the third season, largely because he represents either AFC Richmond’s biggest success or largest failure. Through some tough-talk at a urinal, of all places, he is now a part of the team!
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Now that he has been recruited, this is where the questions start to come out — what is Zava going to bring to the table? Obviously, there is talent, but is he going to be a good teammate? You can tell already that Jamie Tartt is incredibly threatened by him, and they’ve yet to spend even a single moment together. Meanwhile, Dani Rojas clearly idolizes him and would love nothing more than to play alongside him on the team. We do think there are parallels to all sports here, where you have divisive athletes who are loved by some and loathed by others. It is the classic on-paper vs. in-reality argument that you often see discussed on sports-talk shows.
The huge risk Rebecca runs here is that the team already seems divided on Zava, and it remains to be seen if he’d ever buy in to someone like Ted. He may not even respect someone like Roy at the end of the day. Sure, Rupert doesn’t have him, so that is one feather that Rebecca has in her cap … but was he going to get him anyway? That’s what is interesting, given that Zava was at a press conference for Chelsea when he decided to announce that he was joining Richmond.
Ultimately, the story for Zava is still to be written; we’ll have to wait and see where things go.
What do you think we are going to see Zava bring to the table across Ted Lasso season 3?
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