Ryan Reynolds pilots Wrexham to promotion

A real Hollywood ending for British soccer club Wrexham. Two years after Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club, Wrexham is being promoted to League Two, the fourth tier of the English soccer league.

The actors, along with 10,000 other fans, watched the team win their home game against Boreham Wood. It was exciting at first: Wrexham went down 0-1 after only 44 seconds, but managed to win 3-1 in the end. Fans poured onto the field afterwards to celebrate the promotion.

“In the beginning, people kept asking ‘Why Wrexham?”, “Why Wrexham?”, Reynolds said afterwards, referring to his curious purchase of the club. “Well, exactly because of this.”

“We feel what it means for the city. This is a purifying moment, celebration,” McElhenney complemented. “The community has embraced us. To be a part of that is the honor of my life.”

Wrexham now enters step four of the English soccer pyramid:

Wrexham was founded in 1864, making it one of the oldest professional soccer clubs in the world. In recent years, the club bivouacked in the lower echelons of English professional soccer and financially it was getting worse.

The situation seemed hopeless, until the club was bought out of nowhere in February 2021 by Reynolds and McElhenney, known respectively for the Deadpool films and the series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Since then, everything has been different at Wrexham.

TikTok became a shirt sponsor, the club debuted in the popular game FIFA and a documentary series was created, Welcome to Wrexham. Moreover, Wrexham was also doing better and better athletically. It all led to congratulations last night from Crown Prince William, chairman of the English Football Association FA. “A club with such a special history, I look forward to an exciting future back in the league,” he said.

Immediately after the final whistle, Reynolds and McElhenney were filmed in the stands as they enthusiastically accepted congratulations. Soon after, the two could be seen emotional as they silently absorbed the achievement.

Looking for souvenirs, Reynolds later interrupted Wrekham goalie Ben Foster’s press conference. “Are you wearing a shirt? Give me your shirt,” the owner implored. “He had texted me earlier,” Foster acknowledged. “He had really set his sights on it. He wrote, ‘Don’t you dare throw your shirt in the audience.'”

Asked if he planned to sell the tenue online, the actor laughingly replied, “I work in show business. It’s been juicy there lately.”