It’s worth noting that “Ted Lasso” fans don’t know right now how well Zava’s stay at AFC Richmond will go. As the aforementioned Redditor notes, though, Zava’s egotistical personality not only would have likely been intimidating to Nate but probably would have also greatly messed up his toxic methods for controlling his players. For that reason, as well as a few others, u/randomnate argues, “I actually think Rebecca just did Nate a massive favor by mind-gaming Zava into spurning West Ham.”
In response, u/queenmagdi wrote, “I agree, I also think maybe Nate wouldn’t have bullied Zava the way he does the other players. We know he is respectful towards anyone he views as bigger/more powerful than him and Zava certainly has that social currency on him.” Meanwhile, in the same Reddit thread, u/Maverick_1882 echoed their fellow fans’ thoughts, writing, “I think Nate would have sunk to the background with Zava on the team.”
For his part, while he hasn’t offered too many details about Zava’s future on the show, actor Maximilian Osinski has opened up about what appealed to him about the character. In specific, during an interview with Vanity Fair, Osinski said he was happy to discover that Zava wasn’t written as just a one-dimensional character. “I was really happy that it wasn’t just a one-note cocky diva,” Osinski admitted. “The question mark about him is you don’t know if he’s going to kiss you or kick you in the balls.”
Taking Osinski’s latter comment into account, it seems safe to say that it may have really been a lucky stroke of fate for Nate that Zava, a formidable but truly unpredictable football player, ended up going to AFC Richmond.