The Definitive Ranking of Every Ted Lasso Character (Season 3)

“Be Curious. Not Judgmental.”

~Ted Lasso

Ted Lasso, the little show that could (win 11 Emmys), aired its (theoretically) final episode recently. You know the show. You have at least one friend who is like all of our staff members who will gladly talk to you about it without warning, most likely leading to a long, unwelcome conversation.

It’s the story of a college football coach brought over to England to coach a team owned by a spurned ex-wife who hires him to tank her former husband’s favorite team. 

What ensues is a heartwarming ensemble sports show that also deals with heavy topics like mental health, divorce, and self-harm. It also is, by far, the most popular Apple TV+ intellectual property. It has a devoted fan base, hundreds of accolades, and is so great that even though it was planned to end after the third season, they won’t rule out a spinoff.

We love it.

For the past two years, we’ve done the aggressive work of ranking every. Single. Character. If they had a name? They got an entry! 

We wrote about 61 characters who had a named role in Season 1. By Season 2, that number blew up to 121.

According to the Ted Lasso wiki page, by Season 3 we got up to over 300 characters.

Politely? Fuck that.

We’re changing the rules for this final entry to this series, which might diminish the impact of how different certain characters’ rankings are compared to last year, but no one reading this wants to deal with 20,000 words mostly filled with entries that simply read, “Oh, this is Amy, she was Jamie’s partner in the reality TV series he did at the start of Season 2.”

You don’t want to hear that! You want to see where we ranked Nate now! His journey has been a roller coaster!

So instead of ranking every character who has a line or a name, we’ll start with an honorary “you were on the show good for you” list before ranking characters who have actual impact on the show. This should save you all about 20 extra minutes of reading, so you’re welcome.

Every Ted Lasso Character, Ranked (Season 3)

The Honorary Ted Lasso Characters

Here is a list of all the characters who can say, “Sweet! I was in a Ted Lasso!”. We’ll include previous ratings and a sentence describing them. But get ready for a long bullet point list! Feel free to skip past this.

• Richard Cole (125) – The CEO of Cerithium Oil, is basically evil, wants Sam fired. Only appears over a phone call.
• Danothy (121) – Contestant on Love Conquers All.
• Ernie Lounds (118) – He’s the dickhead reporter from The Sun who asks Rebecca about Rupert’s “new girl” in the series opener.
• Bernard (117) – The boy who tells Phoebe her breath smells.
• Ellie (113) – Contestant on Love Conquers All.
• Sarah Coombes (111) – The rude hostess at the secret Bones and Honey club during the Beard stand-alone episode.
• Vinai Ahuja (110) – He’s the Director of Football for Man City (Richmond’s “white whale”) who appears once to say that he’s not welcoming Jamie back on the team at the start of Season 2.
• Uri (101), Tracey (107) – Jamie’s former agent, and his proposed new PR representative.
• Paul John Pope (104) – The concierge at the hotel in Liverpool, he asks Sassy Smurf out for a date.
• Rosie (103) – She sleeps with Jamie right after he and Keeley break up.
• Harry Gill (and friends) (99-101) – The Oxford bros from the Beard episode.
• Kip/Ray/Alex/Robbie (94-97) – Richmond fans without lines who were given names.
• Sam (93) – Jamie’s hairdresser.
• Trevor (92) – Bus driver. Again, there’s a reason we’re not putting too much effort into these characters.
• Kyle McCracken/Jack Dawkins/Martin De Maat/ Arlo Dixon/Tyler Shannon/ Jeff Goodman (85-90) – Richmond bench players.
• Stevie (84) – The bellhop at the hotel for the Everton game.
• Headmaster (83) – The headmaster of Phoebe’s school who doesn’t know Ted’s name.
• Jaylah Vivienne (82) – The host of Love Conquers All.
• Ben (79) – The taxi driver who takes Roy to the Richmond game when he quits his TV gig in Season 2.
• Suzi Campbell (78) – The feminist dog trainer trainer (who has a thing for Keeley).
• Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby (75-76) – Daytime TV hosts.
• Seema Jaswal and Ian Wright (73-74) – Premiere League commentators.
• Geoff (70) – He’s a hot waiter who sleeps with Rebecca.
• Luca (69) – He’s a hot dude who sleeps with Rebecca. (Could be a waiter?)
• Banksy (68) – The Banksy. Apparently he’s a middle-aged white dude who looks like a banker.
• Red, Darren (66-67) – The femme fatale of the Beard episode, and her muscle-bound jealous boyfriend (who ends up saving Beard’s life).
• Isabella (63) – A Richmond employee.
• Liza (62) – A Richmond employee.
• Derek (61) – Richmond’s lawn mower.
• Scott Van Pelt (68) – Famous ESPN commentator who announces Ted’s hiring to start the show.
• Amy (57) – Jamie’s assigned love interest in Love Conquers All.
• Janice (56) – The only named character from Roy’s Yoga group.
• Gary Lineker (52) – Soccer great who appears in hallucinations in Beard’s episode.
• Jeff Stelling and Chris Kamara (51-50): Two football broadcasters who first appeared last season
• The Christmas Buskers (47-49) – The name explains it all.
• Thierry Henry (46) – Soccer great who appears in hallucinations in Beard’s episode.
• Gail (45) – Richmond’s physical therapist who loves True Crime podcasts.
• Earl Greyhound (42, NR) – We have a new Earl. The old Earl was killed by a penalty kick. (They are the dog mascots of Richmond).
• Kokoruda (37) – A member of Phoebe’s soccer team, Roy likes her hustle.
• Terry/Chris/Dana/Stevie/Lindsay Higgins (29-34) – Leslie Higgins’ many children who “wouldn’t exist” if Higgins didn’t believe in second chances.
• Edward the Lamb Wrangler (NR) – You can guess what he does.
• Mr. Gilman (NR) – The Director of Football for Chelsea F.C.
• Gary (NR) – A different Gary than one listed further on, it’s one of the reporters who appears over nine episodes.
• Busker (NR) – The busker who sings “Hey Jude” during a particularly nice moment between Beard and Henry.
• Charles Siziba (NR) – Food critic with questionable ethics who shows up to Sam’s restaurant to just insult him.
• Lord Robert Wadsworth (NR) – One of the club owners invited to the Akufo League.
• Nicolay Alexayav (NR) – One of the club owners invited to the Akufo League.
• Johnny (NR) – We honestly don’t know who this guy is, played by Omar Ibrahim, who we also are not familiar with. He’s in six episodes though! This article involved so much research we just do not have the energy to look into his deal more than this apologetic description. Our best guess is that he works for Keeley’s company.
• Janette (NR) – Same as Johnny. She was in an episode in Season 2, and an episode in Season 3, but we don’t know her deal, so she’s on this list.
• Emma (NR) – The flight attendant from the first and final episodes of Season 3.
• Chloe (NR) – One of the workers at KJPR.
• Chuck, Mel, Del, J. Brinker, Ivor, Gary, James, Matthew, Veggie Dog Vigilante Victim, Helen, Dewey, Bruce, Paul Merson (as himself), Arnold, Jermaine Jenas (as himself), Rebecca Lowe (as herself), Peter Crouch (as himself), Tom Fordyce (as himself), Chris Stark (as himself), Fran, Jessica, The Van Gough Docent, Marjolein, Gizmo the Bike Junkie, Bart the Bartender, Anwar the Reporter, Donte Charles, TV Reporter, Jack Van Gelder (as himself), Marv Albert (as himself, archival footage), Aiden, Gen, Allard, Saskia, Welmoed, Farima, Brinda Barot, Chloe, Addison, Roger, Susan, Alyssa, Mrs. Bread, Young Rebecca, Martin Tyler, Bruce, Lanny, Dan, Sophie, Barry, Jessica, Megan, Harold, Soccer Girl, Ali, Sophia (NR) – These are all the characters who randomly appear during Season 3 but who don’t really need any descriptions.

90: Rupert Mannion (Previous Ranking: 121)

In season 1, Rupert was the charming scumbag who you loved to hate. In season two, he was the goateed villain with charm but some redeeming moments.

Season 3 had Rupert go full asshole, with one quick hiccup where it looked like he might have changed his tune.

But he didn’t.

He tries to steal Nate’s girlfriend from him in front of his face (with a wife and an infant child at home), cheats on said wife with his assistant, fires that assistant when it becomes “inconvenient” and eventually loses not only his manger and the Premiere League title, but also his ownership stake when he gets #MeToo’d.

It was just a matter of time before Rupert’s fall to the bottom would finish, and by the end of the Season 3 finale, he reaches those depths.

89: Edwin Akufo (Previous Ranking: 119)

Sam Richardson is a charming and multi-faceted comedic actor, which is why his heel-turn in season two came as such a surprise. That said, he clearly relishes his role as a billionaire villain, and he continues that streak when he appears in Episode 10 of the third season.

He’s last seen throwing a tantrums, tossing classic Ghanaian cuisine and Chicago-Style hot dogs (like the ones enjoyed by Barack Obama and Ferris Bueller) after his plans for an “Akufu League” are foiled by Rebecca (which was very blatantly ripped from the headlines storyline).

He is the second worst character of the show, which is impressive considering he only appears in a few episodes. But he’s a petulant billionaire whose attempts to keep Sam off the Nigerian national team costs him $20 million…and still didn’t work, as Sam ended up making the team anyway.

He doesn’t know how to read the room, and is so disassociated from the rest of general society that he hires a guy specifically to give out handshakes on his behalf. He’s a caricature, and though it’s fun to see Richardson have fun with the role, as far as the personality traits of the characters of the show, he belongs in the bottom.

The fact that he couldn’t make a group of billionaires try to make more money, and responded to that rejection with a one-man food fight, tells you exactly why he’s here on the list.

88: Damien (Previous Ranking: NR)

We were going to include Damien in our “honorary” section, but he’s the asshole fan in the ninth episode of Season 3 that used the F-word (not that one, the other one) and set Isaac on a rampage. He’s a dick, a bigot, and once was mean to Mae’s niece, so he deserves a spot at the bottom of this list.

87: George Cartick (Previous Ranking: 126)

George, the former manager of Richmond, continues to show up as a talking head on Gillette Soccer Saturday, where he constantly flip-flops and has the worst takes as his co-hosts scoff. One week, Nate is the Wonder Kid who is solely responsible for the success of West Ham. The next, it’s Rupert who is the mastermind, and doesn’t need Nate.

That flip-flop likely led to him being hired as West Ham’s coach, though he continues his legacy of mediocrity in their loss to Richmond, while naturally exposing his testicles due to the short nature of his managerial shorts.

He’s an opportunist, masogonist, and most importantly is just really, really dumb. He continues to remain at the bottom of our list.

86: Jack Danvers (Previous Ranking: NR)

Like Edwin Akufo in Season 2, Jack shows up for a few episodes as the Venture Capitalist behind Keeley’s PR firm…and then her lover. Okay well that last part isn’t similar to Akufo, but the “showing up as a charming, likeable character only to end up being kind of shitty” part is on par.

She dates Keeley, and then essentially slut-shames her for a hacker posting videos she sent to Jamie during their relationship, writes a tone-deaf apology FOR Keeley that she delivers through a second-hand source for Keeley to read, dumps Keeley and drops all her funding while basically ghosting one of the bright spots of the show.

She was introduced as lovely character with lovely shoes and a spare tampon, then becomes a love-bomber and eventually an off-screen shitty ex. That fall from lovely happens at a jarringly sudden place, but when you finish the series you find yourself thinking…yeah, Jack sucks. If you even think about her at all.

84-85 (Tie): Denbo Cullens and Bug (Previous Ranking: 124/125)

These as mentioned in our second season guide, these guys (second to the left, and first to the right) are James Tartt’s shitty friends.

They briefly show up toward the end of the season swigging from flasks giving Jamie some soft accolades and making it seem like his father has passed (when he’s just in rehab).

But let’s not forget that they were basically fully on board to kill Beard. We don’t condone homicide on this website, and if the cops as you our opinion of that, tell them we have never been to Cincinnati.

83: Shandy Fine (Previous Ranking: NR)

Keeley’s model friend, Shandy, joins KJPR (which eventually is reinvented as KBPR in the final episode, apparently signaling a true business partnership with Barbara) in the second episode. She’s positioned to be a Keeley-esque success story, but turns into a Jack-esque disaster. While some argue her character was given a rough shake of things, and she does go from “possibly inspirational character” to “absolute train wreck” in less than an episode, she mostly exists to show Keeley’s growing pains as a boss, which ends up being a recurring theme for Season 3.

That said…oh man does Shandy suck. She’s over-confident, braggodacious, and follows through with her worst impulses (including changing the motto of bantr without running it by anyone). When she inevitably gets fired, she loses her shit and burns all bridges (and also unleashes a very fecal goat into the KJPR offices).

Every scene after the first that she appears in are cringey, and while we wished we had a more multi-faceted character, the character we got definitely deserved to be at the bottom of the rankings.

82: Anastasia Orlov (Previous Ranking: NR)

The famous model who goes on a date with Nate…listen, we’re saying “they kind of suck” a lot in this segment of the article, and we know thesauruses exist, but…Anastasia kind of suck? She exists to show the superficial lifestyle that Rupert espouses, while also serving as a (honestly, kind of lazy, story-wise) tool to get Jade and Nate together.

Her whole thing is she’s a famous model and…that’s it. She goes on a date with Nate for status, doesn’t listen to him as he explains the importance of his favorite restaurant, and then leaves abruptly with a bunch of models in an exit that feels like it’ll end with a freak gasoline fight accident.

81: Derek (Previous Ranking: NR)

Weirdly enough, for a character who appears as much in Season 3 as he does, it is currently impossible to find a picture of Derek in Ted Lasso on Google Images. Or in the Ted Lasso Wiki. It might be because he sucks? (Damn it, that word again.)

Derek is the Nate-obsessed manager of “A Taste of Athens” who comes off pretty obnoxious and almost certainly sexually harassed his staff.

He’s not this low because he fires Nate, or comes off as just kind of a doofus, though none of that helps.

He’s this low because he’s definitely a creep. When he comes to Nate in the penultimate episode to fire him, he makes it readily apparent he had been slapped or punched in the face. He might have been sketchy to Jade at that moment, or maybe she used a slap as a punctuation mark for her demand that he fire Nate.

Either way, Derek just does not seem like a fun hang.

80: Doctor Jacob Bryanson (Previous Ranking: NR)

Doctor Jake isn’t an outright prick or asshole. He is someone who just…sucks. Goddamn it, we can do better than our 6th use of the word “suck.”

He’s a fucking dork. There we go.

Not only is a couples counselor dating a recent patient pretty unethical, he’s just…like we said, a dork. A lame hang. The kind of guy who’s really into Dave Matthews and watching CSI reruns. He’s corny (but not in the charming Ted Lasso way), uninterested in his partner’s interests, and he’s the man who is DATING TED LASSO’S (ex) WIFE.

Again, he sucks. (SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS we’ll say it as many times as we want dammit!)

He’s a character who is introduced doing a bad Donald Trump impression, and who closes out likely dumped and is definitely being a disengaged douche. Doctor Jacob (Please, Ted call him Jake) is a one-note adversarial character who no one likes.

It’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t end up with Ted’s ex-wife, as he starts the season as “awkward guy unethically dating a former client” to “being a petulant child about watching a soccer game.” Which is good. He at least helped Melissa rank higher than she would have if she stayed with him.

79: Francis (Previous Ranking: 98)

While already ranking low on our list after his initial appearance, the man in charge of giving handshakes on behalf of Edwin Akufo drops lower (don’t let the number fool you, he’s a bottom-15 character). He dropped down even further for the seeming enjoyment he had giving Sam one of those “too slow” handshake moves.

78: Roger (Previous Ranking: NR)

He’s the nerdy dude working for West Ham. He’s just sort of a nebbish awkward yes-man who constantly thinks he’s in trouble.

77: Disco (Previous Ranking: NR)

The assistant manager of West Ham, Disco is a stern presence on the sideline. He’s not overtly shitty, but he also just serves to be “one of the coaches on the bad guy team.”

76: Richard (Previous Ranking: 114)

Richard exists to be a sort of stick-in-the-mud patron who always corrects people at Mae’s pub, The Crown and Anchor. He basically continues to play that single-note approach in Season 3. It might seem like he jumped in rankings, but he didn’t, we just ranked fewer characters this season because we didn’t want to die before finishing this article, nor did we want to die writing an article that was roughly 983,000 words long.

75: John (Previous Ranking: 102)

The terribly dull name-dropping man who went on several dates with Rebecca shows up, and is engaged. His fiancé’s Freudian slip implies that, he’s “shite”.

He’s a blatant character trope that exists to show Rebecca she deserves better, but in season 3 he shifts from “being boring” to “oh no, he’s like, an oblivious entitled dick.” He bullies octogenarian Anthony Hopkins for an “ussie” (blaming him for being famous enough to warrant one), and gets upset at the “attitude” given to him while receiving free tickets to the last Richmond game of the season.

He originally was in the bottom 10 of our rankings, but honestly? His response to getting his nose bloodied by Isaac’s penalty kick bumped him up a few spots because his response to that was actually positive and enthusiastic.

74: James Tartt (Previous Ranking: 127)

Jamie Tartt’s terrible, abusive father doesn’t re-appear until the last two episodes of Season 3, and doesn’t really get any lines. After Jamie’s incredible performance at the Man City game, the show briefly lets you think he’s passed away before you learn that he’s in rehab. He also gets a brief shot of him sharing a loving moment with his son in the finale.

He jumps up in the standings due to him working on himself (and good for him) but still stays on the lower side of things due to his actions towards Jamie both in the last few seasons and how he treated Jamie in general before righting his ship.

But as Ted Lasso preaches, people deserve second chances. And it looks like James is handling his the right way.

73: Gerard (Previous Ranking: NR)

They apparently gave a name to the one heckler during the Man City game in the second-to-last episode of the series, heckling Jamie Tartt aggressively, and calling him soft the whole game. He’d easily be in the “Rupert” territory on this list, but when Jamie Tartt scores the finishing goal, with an injured ankle, he was the one that urged his fellow Man City supporters to cheer him on for his effort.

72: Dan (Previous Ranking: NR)

The nervous and awkward worker at Keeley’s PR firm, Dan leaves the show after Jack pulls funding by pointing out that Keeley is a great boss, and also “the hottest” one he’s ever had.

71: Tish (Previous Ranking: NR)

The psychic who Rebecca’s mother goes to is initially told she’s “fucking cruel” when telling Rebecca that she will have a family. She does end up being correct with her prediction (if you’re being generous) when Rebecca ends up with her Dutch lover (who happens to be a pilot, with a child).

70: Mina (the Maid) (Previous Ranking: 77)

Mina is a saint, having had to walk into much more accidental male nudity than her job description necessitates  (assuming you consider Coach Beard’s thong to be nudity, which we do). And whenever she encounters it she knows the right decision.

Start in a different room.

69: Mr. Mann (Previous Ranking: 109)

The man(n) who only shows up to call Ted a wanker. He started off as a jerk, but by Season 3 he has started using “wanker” as a term of endearment, so he gets a slight boost.

68: Ms. Kakes (Previous Ranking: NR)

She spends her entire five-episode arc as Rupert’s stern and no-nonsense assistant with whom Rupert has an affair. Honestly, given her no-nonsense demeanor, the scene of her flirtingly interacting with Rupert felt like a bit of a reach.

Kakes knowingly becomes Rupert’s mistress while Bex was taking care of a young child, which is fairly shitty, but she teams up with Bex to eventually take Rupert down.

67: Bex (Previous Ranking: 116)

Oddly enough, Bex manages to come off way ahead of where she was last season. The “other Rebecca” wasn’t portrayed exactly sinisterly in Season 2, but in Season 3 she’s a new mom (with a new hairdo, though she won’t admit to that) who goes from flighty trophy wife to a sassy mom who gives her shitty husband shit when he deserves it.

She ultimately helps bring Rupert down, with the help of Rebecca and Kakes (see above) and finds herself some agency (though it’s unsure if she ends up taking West Ham in the divorce like Rebecca was able to take Richmond, we’d like to imagine that was the case)

66: Hus (Previous Ranking: 53)

The owner of Roy Kent’s favorite kabob establishment does not appear in Season 3. Looks like Roy is right, Ted knowing its existence was enough to stop him going there anymore.

65: Kenneth the Bus Driver (Previous Ranking: NR)

The team’s driver, and self-described hippie, he helps teach us that if you smoke some toad venom, you’ll probably be good to drive in about twenty minutes.

64: Dr. Wagner (Previous Ranking: NR)

The fertility doctor who talks with Rebecca (ultimately giving her bad news), he’s a big Richmond fan, and has a friendly bedside manner. It’s not surprising Rebecca, with her money, knows the best doctors to go to, but Dr. Wagner definitely seems to be a warm, gentle doctor who is good at his job.

63: Cheryl Barnaby (Previous Ranking: 80)

After first appearing at a celebrity auction being thirsty for Roy Kent, Cheryl makes a brief, but fun, appearance in Season 3 during a walk of shame. She felt no shame. That helped boost her stock in our mind.

62: Jacob (Previous Ranking: 54)

The cute classmate of Phoebe’s who gets a signed soccer ball dripped with Ted Lasso’s blood in the third episode of the first season the first time around. He does not make another appearance in the second season, nor the third. 

61: Nigel (Previous Ranking: 45)

He had to watch poor Earl get murdered by an errant penalty kick (it’s okay Dani it wasn’t your fault) to start Season 2. But at the end of Season 3, he has a new Earl, and seems to be happy taking care of him.

60: Sarah (Previous Ranking: 91)

Last year, we wrote, “And Sarah is a reporter who occasionally shows up. NEXT!”

Sarah gets more exposure in season 3, who has a new look to “spice things up” and also is going through a breakup. She also is reliably there to give A+ reaction shots to emotional press conference moments, so she gets a big boost this season.

59: Cam Cole (Previous Ranking: 71)

We rated him 40th in our first rankings, after his show-stopping performance at the  “For the Children” gala, and he remains a mid-tier character level. He makes occasional appearances so we don’t forget him, though Season 1 was his big moment.

58: Laughing Liam (Previous Ranking: 60)

Liam is known for his laugh, which is…unique, but also shows he’s an affable, fun guy who loves his job. In Season 3 he’s seen laughing at Roy Kent’s tie-dyed TV show, and shows the wisdom to shut it down when he sees Roy’s death glare.

57: Shannon (Previous Ranking: 43)

Shannon, the skilled soccer player, doesn’t appear in the third season. She’s lovely in her few appearances, but is also just a fun side character who isn’t given a lot of screen time.

56: Tom O’Brien (Previous Ranking: 81)

Now the backup keeper (thanks to Zoreaux, sorry, Van Damme, sorry, Zorro, dominating in the role), O’Brien has a first name now, and has a few scenes of locker room comradery (while deleting his Coprophilia photos). He’s also best known for tearing his butt in season one, letting Zorro join Richmond, making them infinitely better.

55: Tommy Winchester (Previous Ranking: 39)

Winchester was introduced last season as the team’s center, and scored an own goal. We expected him to take a larger role in Season 3, but since the third season had so many story lines to work out and character arcs to fulfill, he was one of the many players who ended up more-or-less invisible this season.

54: Simon(Previous Ranking: NR)

Simon is Jamie Tartt’s stepfather, he seems to be a lovely man (and an inventive baker) who cares after his mother and is just a nice guy. He’s only briefly on the show, which is the only reason he’s not higher on this list.

53: Tommy (Previous Ranking: 55)

The origin of the term “ussie”, Tommy basically is given one or two moments each season to just be…well let’s be honest, a sort of chav himbo. He starts the show telling Ted that he’s “mental” for taking the Richmond job. He ends it by saying that Ted is “mental” for leaving it.

52: Pep Guardiola (Previous Ranking: NA)

The legendary Spanish football player and actual Manchester City coach, both Ted and Beard get to geek out about him congratulating on their win in the penultimate episode. When Ted says, “You’re a tough guy to beat,” he echoes back the sentiment Ted says to Trent Crimm in the third episode of the first season.

“It’s not about the wins and losses. It’s about helping these young fellas be the best versions of themselves on and off the field.”

Playing himself, Pep definitely does a good job showing he’s a great coach, and a good guy.

51: Renee (Previous Ranking: 72)

Renee is the mysterious gateway keeper of the secret entrance to the Richmond pitch, he appeared in the Coach Beard episode of last season, though has a few more appearances in Season 3. Most notably, he let’s Nate into the locker room to allow him to set up the team’s uniforms and leave a note apologizing for how he treated Will that previous season.

50: Ollie (Previous Ranking: 41)

Ollie only appears in two episodes in Season 1, but he made his mark due to his sheer energy and friendliness. Him excitingly giving Ted another serving of his father-in-law’s food is both an endearing moment, and one that solidifies to tone of Trent Crimm’s The Independent report that set the tone for the entire series.

49: Nora (Previous Ranking: 22)

Nora, Flo’s daughter, doesn’t appear in the third season, so she drops just out of lack of screen time (she is mentioned via strong political views she sends via text).

48: Jane (Previous Ranking: 115)

Another character that has yo-yo’d over the past three seasons, going from 21 to 115 in the first two seasons, Jane only shows up a few times, and otherwise is expressed through hearsay or off-hand references.

That said, Season 2 set Jane up to be a toxic relationship for Beard, and Season 3 decides that the two are the kind who have baggage that matches.

It’s a bit of a forced story-arc, since she spends the first season as a chess-loving love interest, spends the second season as a borderline-problematic caricature of the “crazy girlfriend” and ends being the reason Beard stays behind (likely to leave open the possibility of including Beard in a Ted Lasso spin-off).

She ends the show as Mrs. Beard, so even though she only has a handful of moments this season, that’s enough to allow her to jump up to the high-area of the rankings once again.

47: Michael(Previous Rankings: NR)

Colin’s sexuality becomes a surprisingly poignant plot point in the final season, and Michael is, essentially, his boyfriend. Or as Colin would say, his “fellah.” Colin gets to kiss his fella in the season finale, on the pitch, and it’s a lovely moment.

46: Lloyd (Previous Rankings: 38-39, tied with Marcus)

The last two seasons we lumped in Lloyd and Marcus, two Richmond beat writers, but when Marcus upgraded to a last name and a lucrative role at The Independent, we had to separate this duo. He still is one of the more memorable reporters with some of the most screen time.

45: Leanne Bowen (Previous Ranking: 28)

Ms. Bowen’s first name is revealed toward the end of Season 3. Phoebe’s former teacher, who clearly has a thing for Roy Kent, only gets a single scene in the final season, where her admission that she was flirting with Roy inadvertently leads to Roy apologizing to Keeley (and briefly starting things up again).

Whether Roy and Keeley end up together is left unclear (it seems like she chooses to focus on herself instead of either Jamie or Roy) it feels a little like a missed opportunity that Leanne wasn’t used more.

She’s charming, has chemistry with Roy, and frankly would be a great partner for him. But instead she’s used as a plot device, which was a waste of her charm, in our opinion.

This is where we will again assume a Ted Lasso spinoff will happen, and she and Roy will have a part of the plot.

44: Dr. O’Sullivan (Previous Ranking: NR)

We missed her inclusion in our last two rankings, but we had to give a proper entry for Roy’s sister, the mother of Keeley, a busy doctor who works at the Richmond hospital and whose deadbeat ex-husband is a “piece of shit.”

She raised a good kid, and thankfully has Roy around to help take away some of the burden of being a single mother with a demanding job.

43: Nicole (Previous Ranking: NR)

Nate’s sister only appears in two episodes, but its her children that Nate has worked with to make his famous donation boxes. She also teams up with his mom to, in the good way, bully him into asking Jade out. She’s also the most popular lawyer at her law firm thanks to Nate’s greatness (though we don’t know how her standing changes professionally when he stops being head coach).

42: Marcus Adebayo(Previous Rankings: 65-65 – tied with Lloyd)

Marcus went from “one of the two reporters who ask the most questions to Ted” to replacing Trent Crimm at The Independent, earning his character a last name as a result. He plays a slightly larger role (but not nearly as much as Trent Crimm, but that’ll come up later).

Roy calls him “Better Trent” and he does prove to be great at his job, asking insightful, plot-moving questions with emotional responses.

41: Arlo White (Previous Ranking: 26/27)

We historically have combined Chris Powell and Arlo White as a back-to-back single ranking since they are fun narrators for the pitch-portion of the show. But we decided to separate them because, while they both are lovely additions to the show, they’ve given the color man a little more to work with this season, so he separates himself from the pack. More on that next.

(Arlo’s the one on the right, Chris is the one on the left.)

40: Chris Powell (Previous Ranking: 26/27)

Arlo White clearly has a lot of fun on the show, but Powell, a former player and current coach, is given the most jokes of the duo, and plays them with a delightful deadpan that adds a lot of color to the various matches you see during the season.

39: Lloyd Shelly (Previous Ranking: Tied 105-106)

Last year we ranked the Shellys together, while pointing out that Nate’s mother is clearly a less-toxic influence than his father. This season, each parent gets their own time to shine, and mirror Nate’s journey by coming off as much more supportive and appreciative than they seemed in Season 2.

Lloyd, Nate’s father, honestly sucks (that word again) when he first appears. But he more than avails himself in the most recent season.

He’s given motivation and explanation for his gruff demeanor, while establishing that he only wants his son to be happy, and that it’s his fault that he didn’t know how to raise a “genius.” He’s responsible for some of the most tender and sweet moments in the latter half of the season, a sharp departure from his introduction.

38: Deborah (Previous Ranking: 21)

Rebecca’s mom was a large part of Season 2, but her main input to Season 3 was to have Rebecca go to her psychic. She remains a good mother who is kind of…flighty and who has a 50/50 chance of giving actionable advice or well-intentioned bad advice.

37: Zava (Previous Ranking: NR)

Mercurial superstar, avocado enthusiast, selfish game-changer, there are a lot of terms you can use to describe Zava, who joined the team in episode three of the third season to help rocket Richmond up the standings almost singlehandedly before literally ghosting the team and retiring from the sport without warning.

He’s viewed as a God-like figure, and he acts like he is. He is both outwardly empathetic while wholly selfish, exuding an air of spirituality that seems to stem from spending a whole career being so good at his job that no one dares tell him “no.”

You might be surprised to see him this high on the list, considering his giant (and we mean GIANT) ego and lack of loyalty, but he also was never mean to any teammates (though Jamie might disagree with that one stolen goal) and is a large reason for a lot of unlikely wins for the Richmond squad.

36: Michelle Lasso (Previous Ranking: 40)

It’s hard to figure out where Ted’s ex (?) wife lands here. She definitely dropped the ball by dating her former couple’s therapist and then failing to mention it to Ted. But she has warm moments later in the season.

And while the show tries to set up a plotline of her marrying Doctor Jake, it’s pretty clear she ends up realizing how much of a doofus he is, and breaks up with him (did she get proposed to in Paris, but said no instead? Or did Doctor Jake just take her to the Paris McDonalds before the Eiffel Tower?).

When Ted calls her out for not letting him know about the relationship, she calmly accepts his criticism, while cracking a slight smile, possibly to telegraph that she’s glad to see Ted move past his relentless positivity that pushed them apart.

Ted ends up moving back to Kansas City to be with his son. While it’s likely that she has ditched Doctor Jacob, it’s not immediately clear if she gets back with Ted.

While the answer to that last question might slightly impact Michelle’s ranking, she does end the season having sympathetic moment, and it’s clear that no matter what, Ted and Michelle will be able to be supportive partners in helping Henry have a happy childhood.

35: Simi (Previous Ranking: NR)

Simi is the head chef at Sam’s restaurant, and she is both dedicated to her craft, and a strong enforcer in the kitchen (YES CHEF).

She’s very likeable, and the show teases out the potential of her and Sam ending up in a relationship, but they let that particular plot line sort of fizzle out. If our assumption that the show is spun-off into a new show called Richmond ends up happening, we might see her play a larger part there.

34: Richard Montlaur (Previous Ranking: 35)

Richard has always been known as “French” “sleeps with models” and “loves wine.” That said, he’s remained a positive teammate, educating his team that a fine wine doesn’t have to be an expensive wine, while digging into his own personal stash to help Sam restock his liquor after Ola’s was vandalized.

He’s still somewhat one-note, but is one of most visible players on the team, and is an affable presence on the screen.

33: Jan Maas (Previous Ranking: 20)

Everyone’s favorite Dutchman (except for Rebecca’s likely future husband) is back and pretty much keeps his single note going. Blunt and straightforward, Jan tells ’em like he sees ’em.

He also knows how to ask the staff to try to talk the team out of going to a sex show, which will be boring and gross. It seems like he knows from experience.

32: Julie Higgins (Previous Ranking: 18)

We are contractually obligated to point out that the actress who plays Julie Higgins and the actor who plays Leslie Higgins are married in real life.

She’s wonderful throughout the entire series. So you might wonder…why has she being dropped so strongly? It’s not her fault! There were just so many plot-points in the final (?) season that the Higgins family didn’t get any real screen time. As a result, due to the amount of time sitting on the bench, she was leap frogged by some other characters.

31: Jeremy (Previous Ranking: 23)

Jeremy is still a passionate fan and one of the main Richmond trio, but is given the least to work with and the least to do. We still cheer for him as much as he cheers for his beloved Greyhounds though.

30: Moe Bumbercatch (Previous Ranking: 36)

According to Colin (and Isaac, apparently), Bumbercatch is the “most fit” player on Richmond. He has a few goals and assists that are key for Richmond’s success, but most importantly, he was able to fix the neon sign for Sam’s restaurant.

29: Dottie Lasso (Previous Ranking: NR)

Ted Lasso’s mother is friendly, warm, fun at parties, and maybe embellishes a story or two to make her son look more impressive. She also held in a lot of pain after the suicide of her husband, and inadvertently transferred some of that pain to Ted.

She visits London on a whim, though really she’s there to send Ted back to where he belongs. With his son. While Te’d’s “thank you, fuck you” speech delivered to his stunned friendly southern-accented mother reads as either heartful or awkward is up to the viewer, but it does push the plot along quite a lot.

Dottie is very “Lasso” in how she talks, to the point that it only takes a sentence from her for people to realise, “OH YOU ARE TED’S MOM!” Which means, obviously, she’s a delight. But she also has some of the struggles Ted did in earlier seasons, burying things down instead of dealing with it directly.

But she does understand the importance of a father being with his son, and is largely the reason why Ted fully realizes that importance himself.

28:  Maria Shelly (Previous Ranking: Tied 105-106)

While Lloyd Shelly availed himself greatly, Maria Shelly was honestly unfairly lumped-in with Nate’s surly father. She shows true matriarchal instincts and helps Nate with his search for love. She even knows when to let her husband leave the farmer’s market for his non-existent acid reflux.

Most importantly, she clearly loves her family, and is a warm presence. It’s lovely that the show decided to give her more screen time, so she wouldn’t be just a one-off character like many listed haphazardly at the top of this article.

27: Matthijs (Previous Ranking: NR)

Originally credited as “Stranger” we find out his name during a random encounter outside of Heathrow Airport. A charming, considerate single-father, he and Rebecca likely are going to end up together, giving her the family she always wanted.

He starts off…well, catcalling Rebecca which isn’t a great start (though the catcalling was actually him trying to be cute about warning her she was on a bike lane) but the show clearly wants you to like him, and Matteo van der Grijn’s portrayal is filled with warmth and empathy.

26: Barbara (Previous Ranking: NR)

Barbara is the CFO for Keeley’s organization, both pre-and-post Jack. She starts the show as a potential antagonist, or at the very least an active stick-in-the-mud.

But she has one of the strongest character arcs of Season 3. She eventually proves herself to be extremely competent at her job, extremely loyal to the right people, and, as Keeley tells her…fun.

She also loves to see grown men just wreck each other’s shit. If there is violence, Barbara is here for it.

We didn’t expect Barbara to end up this high on the list, but she earned her journey.

25: Jade (Previous Ranking: 112)

Like Nate, and likely because of Nate, Jade’s stock skyrockets in Season 3. Last season, she was sassy, snarky, and frankly rude hostess at Nate’s favorite restaurant. She takes a much larger role this season, starting off with the same aloofness before being charmed by, um, we guess the fact that Nate brought a model into the restaurant and said nice things about the food before getting ditched?

She eventually becomes Nate’s girlfriend, and her sharp edges manage to dull, while still keeping a level of sass that stops feeling mean and starts feeling supportive.

She also punches her boss in the face to make him fire Nate, knowing he was wasting his potential at her restaurant and needed to go back to Richmond to redeem himself. Her last two moments in the series are her smirking while eating skewered chicken after hearing Beard offer Nate a job, and then her having a lovely dinner with Nate’s family.

She was at the bottom of our list last year, but ended up winning us over and overtaking some great characters. Truly a stunning turnabout for the character.

24: Flo “Sassy” Collins (Previous Ranking: 14)

Sassy Smurf remains charming and pleased with, um, let’s just say her and Ted’s sexual chemistry. But she’s not given much of a story in the final season, instead appearing looking for a hookup (no judgement) and helping Ted realize that he’s “a mess.”

Sassy is still great, but she’s just sprinkled throughout the third season, which is fair since as you can see, there are a lot of character stories that needed to be told, so it’s fine that Flo got somewhat sidelined while still helping Ted get to where he needs to go.

23: Phoebe (Previous Ranking: 12)

Phoebe remains a driving force for Roy’s best impulses, but like Flo, doesn’t get nearly as much focus as she did in last few seasons. She ends up dropping behind the other primary child character in the show, since she shows up for a few episodes, but doesn’t have nearly as much impact on her surrounding characters as…

22: Henry Lasso (Previous Ranking: 38)

Henry has grown over the three seasons he has been on the show, and so has his importance. He spends time with Ted, plants the seeds for him to forgive Nate at the start, bullies a fellow student but immediately apologizes with a rap in front of his whole class.

He ends up being the driving force for Ted’s journey, and 100% is the reason why Ted leaves Richmond to go back to the states. And it’s clear that not only does Ted love his son, but that his son loves him, and wants him to be a part of his life.

Season 3 starts with him leaving his father from Heathrow and ends with his father coaching him in a soccer game, telling him to “be a goldfish” after he misses a show on goal. And he does end up being one of the most important character of the show as he’s sprinkled throughout with a series of FaceTime chats an while racking up frequent flyer miles.

21: Georgie (Previous Ranking: NR)

The episode “Mom City” has some of the best moments in the third season, and anchoring some of those moments is Jamie’s mother, Georgie, both comforting her son (with some….slightly Oedipal undertones) and her pure joy at his successful play while watching Jamie’s incredible performance against Man City.

Georgie isn’t given a last name in her credits, so we don’t know if she kept the Tartt last name, reverted to her maiden name, or took her new husband’s name (who, as we’ve seen on this list, is lovely).

But she was a large presence for various Jamie Tartt plot points before she was introduced to help him get over his emotional break before playing against his former team as he had to deal with his father being the “Freddie Kruger” in the crowd rooting against him.

She’s a loving mother, found herself a kind and supportive partner, and was the only one to know the exact right thing to say to Jamie (after Roy and Keeley each struck out on their attempts).

The difficulty of parenting often comes up in Ted Lasso, but Georgie is one of the least-fallible parents portrayed on the show (even though her basically swaddling her adult son wearing a tank top is…an interesting choice).

But she clearly loves her son. Jamie loves her. And she helps motivate him to great things. And her delivery of, “I balled my eyes out” when telling her son how proud she was of him playing on the England national team probably made most viewers weep too.

Her character was built up through a few seminal scenes (starting with Jamie burning his first pair of trainers that she gave him) and her surprise introduction played off. Like the next entry on this list, this is a top-10 worthy character who only is lower on the list due to their lack of appearances on the show.

20: Ola Obisanya (Previous Ranking: 44)

Speaking of loving parents, the namesake of Sam’s West African cuisine restaurant (and also his father), it’s tempting to put him even higher on this list despite his limited screen time.

Large in stature, heart, wisdom, and support for his son, Ola appeared only as a voice over a phone call in Season 2. He arrives when Sam is at his lowest, angry at the world after his restaurant was vandalized in response to his stance on supporting refugees.

He is there to immediately embrace his son in a warm hug, tell him not to fight back, but to fight forward, and give him a little tug on his ear (which Sam referenced as a comforting gesture from his childhood early in the first season).

It’s a wonderful moment when we get to see his reaction to “Ola” appearing in neon lights in the bar before he goes into the restaurant’s kitchen to prepare a feast for the whole team.

In a show that tends to lean on complicated relationships with fathers, Ola is a warm, inviting, and uncomplicated presence who provides a lot of heart and support in his brief appearance.

19: Paul (Previous Ranking: 14)

Paul remains the cheerful presence he has already been, but of the trio (Paul is on the left) actually gets the most to do this season of the trio of fans, which is why just ahead of him is…

18: Baz (Previous Ranking: 16)

Baz gets a job, invites an opposing team to the bar, and helps get his crew invited to watch Richmond practice on a weekly basis. He remains one of the primary faces of Richmond.

17: Nathan Shelley (Previous Ranking: 120)

Nate dropped from number 3 to number 120 before redeeming himself this season. Now, where he ends, you could argue he’s worth a top-10 spot, but he has to take a time-out for his poor behavior in Season 2 and at the start of Season 3.

Nate started off as a humble kitman, worked his way to a coaching position, betrayed Richmond to become the “Wonder Kid” of West Ham, quit the job when he realized Rupert was, well, Rupert, worked as a waiter, and eventually came back to Richmond as…an assistant kitman.

He got a girlfriend, grew emotionally, moved pasted his insecurities, made peace with his father, earned forgiveness from Ted and Beard, and even helped plan the winning play at the end of the season (which was the first play he ever created for Richmond).

Nate’s journey has been a roller coaster. If season two never happened, he’d easily be in the top 5, but we still appreciate that we are now (thankfully) back to the old Nate. We didn’t like the new Nate.

16: Will Kitman (Previous Ranking: 25)

We waffled between where Nate and Will should be placed. Nate started out as a meek kitman who worked his way up to assistant coach, only to let power corrupt him before finding his way and moving back up in the rankings as an all-time great character.

But Will has always been enjoyable, helped Higgins fulfil a lifelong dream of playing cello on the stage in Amsterdam’s Red Light District, offered non-judgmental advice at all times, and was able to push the philosophy of Total Football with an A+ Coach Beard impression.

Oh and, as he casually told his mother, he met a lovely couple who wanted to have a threesome.

At the end of the series, we’re led to believe that Will is the Kitman, and Nate is working under him. We know that if they spin the show off, Nate will instead be a coach again, having paid his dues.

But we also know that Will will have no problem with that outcome. He’s always positive, helpful, effective and kind. He’s the exact kind of character you’d expect from Ted Lasso.

15: Thierry Zoreaux / Van Damme / Zorro (Previous Ranking: 24)

After having a crisis of identity thanks to a talk from Zava (to be fair, deciding to identify as Van Damme is an understandable temptation), Zoreaux, using his new badass mask, decides he is finally actually “Zorro” when it comes to pronouncing his name.

Outside of his awkward obsession with seeing a sex show after the team’s Netherland’s exhibition, Zorro had a fantastic Season 3.

He didn’t have a lot of strong plot points that grew his character, though he did have a lot of great one-liners and was a solid part of the locker room.

But most importantly, as the final season for the first time focused on the actual soccer play, Zorro had the most highlight-worthy moments of anyone except for maybe Jamie Tartt.

His acrobatic goaltending literally won multiple games for Richmond. Arlo White might correctly compare his play to being a brick wall, and Chris Powell may equally correctly point out that he is a man, as he has arms and legs, but either way Zorro was an unstoppable force who pushed Richmond from a last place team to almost winning “the whole fucking thing.”

14: Sharon Fieldstone (Previous Ranking: 7)

An unabashed bright spot of Season 2 (rightfully earning actress Sarah Niles an Emmy nomination), Dr. Fieldstone takes more of a backseat in Season 3. She shows up sporadically, largely over the phone for therapy sessions that she has continued with Ted (sessions which continue to show dividends).

She has some nice light moments in the finale, featured in a few reaction shots while watching the game on her bed (and passionately cheering for Richmond). Her drop in the rankings isn’t a mark on her character, but rather the result of her diminished role compared to the characters ahead of her.

13: Colin Hughes (Previous Ranking: 19)

Colin went from being a bully to being bullied (“I am a strong and confident man”) to taking a left turn into being a closeted gay professional athlete. His story arc in Season 3 doesn’t treat him like a side-character (as he generally was previously) and instead gives him depth and character we were lacking.

Him coming out to his team was handled gently and responsibly, but seeing his team’s acceptance and his relief at telling his truth was one of the most inspirational moments of the season.

By the time he gets his goal against Man City toward the end of the season, and gets a sincere “good job, you got a goal” from an injured Jamie Tartt, Colin’s completed his journey from “random guy who is mean to Nate” to “Premiere-class player who finally gets to kiss his boyfriend on the pitch” in a way that was moving, and earned.

12: Mae (Previous Ranking: 13)

Mae, the matriarch of the Crown & Anchor, has always been a top tier character. But between giving Ted’s son Henry free play at her bar, and dispensing much needed advice to Ted while his mother is in town, she both keeps her sassiness, and her wisdom, and remains one of the best parts of the show.

11: Dani Rojas (Previous Ranking: 11)

Say it again, just like the last time. Football is life.

Dani gets some fun moments (he scored a goal with his face!) but is less focused on in Season 3.

He mostly is a great teammate (though he does have a weird obsession with Zava. And he also breaks Zorro/Van Damme’s nose when he goes into killer mode.) But he remains, as always, an eager and elite player on the Richmond squad.

Dani is a top player on the team, a bubbly presence on the squad, and has been just a general delight to watch since he joined Richmond midway through the first season.

10: Sam Obisanya (Previous Ranking: 5)

Sam was a top 5 character last season, and has some great moments in Season 3. His devastation at the vandalism of his restaurant, followed by the team banding together to help him as Ola gets to see his name come up in lights thanks to Bumbercatch’s technical prowess.

The scenes with his father are truly touching, and his play on the field was *British announcing voice* inspired, and it was hard not to give a little fist bump when the close of the finale shows he finally achieved his goal of making the Nigerian national team.

He gets leapfrogged by a few characters mainly because he gets a lot less focus than he did in the last season, as other characters got more complete arcs. The show kept attempting to hint that he would end up starting a family with Rebecca (which, eh, we are fine with that not happening).

Otherwise he is the focus point of one episode, and has some great moments (him flipping off Jamie when he was made captain was particularly great).

All of this is a lot of apologizing for keeping Sam as a top-10 character in a show full of top-10-worthy characters, admittedly. Obviously we love Sam.

9: Isaac McAdoo (Previous Ranking: 9)

At the beginning of the show, Jamie, Isaac and Colin were collectively the worst. Their journeys into becoming the best they can be on and off the field is the ultimate testament to the Ted Lass, we mean, Richmond Way.

Isaac is a true leader. He’s aggressively loyal. When he finds out Colin is gay, we’re led to believe he responds negatively because he’s a homophobe, but it turns out he’s upset that he felt that Colin was worried he would judge him for his sexuality.

After being (surprisingly) gently told by Roy to handle “whatever was bothering him” head-on, he goes to Colin’s and they talk it out. When Colin says his line about “the team knows, that’s enough for me” he promises that he’ll make sure that his wishes are met on that front.

Then they play video games together as Isaac asks him well-intentioned but mostly-naïve questions. It’s an endearing moment, but it does show how at the end of the day, not only is Isaac a world class barber, he cares about his teammates.

8: Keeley Jones (Previous Ranking: 2 [tie])

Keeley had a bit of an up and down season this time around. She did her “Boss bitch” shit with aplomb, though that involved a sketchy blackout curtain office (inherited) and a daily scheduled cry. She dated her Venture Capitalist funding boss, and had to deal with a leaked video of a personal nature.

She’s always been one of the best characters on the show, but between her loyalty to Sandy and her acceptance of Jack’s “love bombing”, she eventually ends the season with her own agency, but has a few more bumps and skids along the way than she had in previous seasons.

7: Leslie Higgins (Previous Ranking: 7)

Leslie has always been our favorite gagging Director of Football Operations, and continues on that track this season. He gets fewer moments to showcase his family life than the last two seasons, but he also gets asked by Rebecca for actual advice, and gives the right advice after being surprised he’d made it to that echelon.

And let’s not forgot he’s a Diamond Dog, and cares enough about his duties there that he’ll run like crazy even if it involves addressing a relationship question that is laughably basic.

6: Rebecca Welton (Previous Ranking: 4)

Rebecca has never not been outside of the top 10, which is impressive given that she started Season 1 as the villain of the show. But of course, Rebecca is a great person with a big heart and a big wallet (Keeley thanks her for the latter).

She does seem somewhat underutilized in Season 3, all things considered. Her main focus is starting a family, which involves her being told she will start a family, her looking furtively at Sam, her blackout-sleeping with a Dutch man on a boat after she falls into a canal (normal stuff), finding out she can’t have children of her own, and running into the Dutch man (by helping his daughter) and establishing she’ll probably have a family of her own.

She did, through her own strength and confidence, stop the Akufo league from happening while turning down billions of dollars to sell only a minority stake in the team in order to stay with Richmond. And she turned down the prospect of $2 billion to instead sell a minority stake of the team to its fans. She had her moments, and remains an all time treasure of a character.

5: Roy Kent (Previous Ranking: 2 [tie])

Roy Kent is here, he’s there, he every fucking where, and he is a part of a lot of story arcs, though most are fairly cut and dry.

He breaks up with Keeley, briefly gets back together with her, and then gets into a dumb fight with Jamie (off-camera) for her affection (it seems like she chooses neither suiter).

He continues to hate the Diamond Dogs before finally asking for inclusion in the exclusive group.

He gets over his past issues with Jamie Tartt by training him (extremely hard) so he can be the star he wants to be.

He…learns how to ride a bike?

And of course, he ends the series as Richmond’s new head coach.

There’s a lot to love about Roy Kent in his first full season as a Richmond coach. He doesn’t get as many emotional beats as previous season, which is why he is just barely eked out by some other top-level characters, but Roy Kent remains, as always, one of the best around.

4: Willis Beard (Previous Ranking: 6)

Yup that’s right. Coach Beard was given a first name at the very end of the last episode of Season 3.

Beard’s current story and back-story grew a lot in this (supposedly) final season. His relationship with Jane has evolved from “problematic” to “eh, they’re both the same right of crazy.” We learned that he stole a “loaf of meth” and went to prison, was a backup kicker in college, and essentially got a brand new life thanks to Ted Lasso. 

It’s Beard, not Ted, who gives Nate his second chance. And as much as we disliked his relationship with Jane last season…he ends up staying behind at Richmond because he and Jane ultimate made it work for them. And he’s still there to help the Hounds excel in future seasons.

Beard has been on a journey, and the hardest part of it likely involved him leaving Ted behind to stay in England for love. But it does make you love Beard all that much more.

(Also, our assumption is that there will be a spinoff called Richmond or The Richmond Way that will feature Roy, Nate, and Beard as the main characters. If Apple goes with that approach tell them they owe us $1,900 dollars for the idea).

3: Trent Crimm (Previous Ranking: 17)

Trent Crimm is responsible for the moment where our staff realized that Ted Lasso was going to be a show. Honestly, this might be the best scene of the entire series.

By season 3, Crimm has left The Independent and is set to write about Richmond’s season.

He meets resistance. Roy Kent demands no one speak in front of him, because of a brutal critique Crimm wrote about a then-17-year-old Kent’s debut (while he himself was a young journalist trying to make a name for himself).

Crimm apologizes, and gets full access to the team, becoming an official member of the Diamond Dogs, writing a best-selling book, and even offering advice for how the team should proceed, including an enthusiastic endorsement of “Total Football.”

Plus, as Dottie Lasso point out…he has fantastic hair.

2: Jamie Tartt (Previous Ranking: 10)

Shockingly, Jamie manages to continue his growth in ways that no one here expected. After season one, the thought of Jamie being higher up than Rebecca or Keeley would have seemed impossible.

But while Rebecca and Keeley have their own plot points, Jamie continues his journey from “brash superstar” to “emotionally-sensitive team player who ends up the leader of a 2nd place team.”

He treats Keeley with respect when it’s revealed he was the one hacked that released her video, he goes out of his way to support Van Damme and Colin and, honestly, the team as a whole.

Given that he started off, basically, as a ego-centric dick, he ends Season 3 both as a full team player, but a good man.

Exactly the kind of journey Ted Lasso wanted to see from his players.

He made the national team, got to play, and had some weirdly Oedipal moments with his mom. But heroic performance against Man City while injured wasn’t punctuated by gloating, but rather telling Colin how proud he was of his goal before going to the medic.

While many of the top characters started off as fantastic stories from the beginning, Jamie went from being a talented brat to one of the emotional cores of the show. We’re surprised by this ranking….but we will defend it.

1: Ted Lasso (Previous Ranking: 1)

Ted Lasso will always be the top of this show. When they eventually have their Richmond spinoff, that will likely change. Because we think we probably have seen the last of Ted Lasso, for now.

Ted started this show with no knowledge of “the most beautiful game.” He promised to respond to relegation by “winning the whole fucking thing.” And he almost got there.

It’s not that he managed to end with an incredible 2nd place finish when he was expected to finish 20th (“only because there’s no 21st” as Nate pointed out).

It’s that he managed to meet his ultimate goal. As the rankings of this article show, he was able to make all the players on his team better, both on and off the pitch.

Roy went from being the bitter player past his prime to the new head coach of the team, who helped train his younger rival.

Jamie was a brash, boastful, egotistical young star who became a sensitive, empathetic team player….who still knows when the team is better with him taking over.

Isaac went from being a blunt bully henchman to the team captain, encouraging those around him with full loyalty.

Sam went from an underperforming and quiet young player to a confident star who demands focus on important social issues – he doesn’t “just keep dribbling”, he uses his platform to make real change.

Colin finds the courage to come out to his team, and is rewarded by being able to kiss his fella on the pitch.

Nate is able to find the errors of his ways, and to allow himself to find the strength to apologize.

Keeley is able to know she doesn’t need someone else to make her happy, while Rebecca finds the family she wanted, but without making compromises.

Beard struggles to leave Ted to marry the person he loves, but of course, Ted isn’t upset. In fact, he’s impressed with Beard’s faked appendicitis approach to getting off the flight.

Leslie…well, Leslie has a great life and no longer has to worry about gagging being asked to things he doesn’t want to do.

And when Trent Crimm wanted to give all the credit for all of these amazing instances of growth…Ted refused to let his ego accept that.

It’s not the Ted Lasso way.

It’s the Richmond way.

So hopefully Ted will forgive us for, for a third year in a row, deciding that the best character in Ted Lasso is…well….Ted Lasso.