Thomas Rongen has learned, over the course of a globe-trotting soccer career, the importance of locking in the first name on the team sheet.
So when the former D.C. United coach found out that Taika Waititi was adapting the 2014 documentary “Next Goal Wins” as a dramatized movie — giving a slice of his life the Hollywood treatment — he awaited news of who the director would pick to headline the cast and portray him on the big screen. In 2019, shortly before the film went into production, Waititi broke the news to Rongen.
“He actually said, ‘I wanted my good friend Russell Crowe first to play you, but Russell Crowe is too old, too fat, and I picked a better guy named Michael Fassbender,’ ” Rongen recalled during a recent video chat from South Florida, where he works as a broadcaster for MLS team Inter Miami.