Reynolds and McElhenney plan to turn Welsh minnow into 'global force'

Wrexham will bring a rare sprinkling of stardust to the fifth tier of English soccer when it belatedly kicks off its National League campaign at Solihull Moors on Saturday.

The club from the former mining hub in northeast Wales only missed the promotion playoffs for a place in the Football League by one point last season, but that is not the reason for the upsurge in optimism.

Wrexham has surprising new owners and while most fans in Britain dread Americans taking over their clubs, so far at Wrexham the signs are good. One of them is also very big.

Last weekend, huge white letters imitating the famous Hollywood sign but spelling out 'WREXHAM' appeared above the town. Instead of the sun-kissed hills above Tinsel Town, the sign rests on the slag heap of a disused coal mine.

It emerged on Friday that the sign had been paid for by the sponsors of the National League.

In February, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, two Hollywood movers and shakers, bought the club, saying they wanted to turn it into a "global force".

Canadian Reynolds is a Hollywood A-lister, the star of Deadpool and the former husband of Scarlett Johansson.

McElhenney has a less glitzy filmography but has produced long-running US comedy show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Now the pair faces the more difficult task of making Wrexham sunny. The club has a proud history but has never come close to being a "global force".

Until this year its most famous name was Joey Jones, who became the first Welshman to win the European Cup when he was with Liverpool but had three spells and 270 games at Wrexham.

Wrexham played in the Football League from 1921 to 2009, reaching the second division for four seasons in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Before the Dragons were exiled from the Welsh Cup because they opted to remain in the English leagues, Wrexham appeared eight times in the now-defunct UEFA Cup' Winners Cup, losing 2-1 on aggregate to Anderlecht in the quarterfinals in 1976. The club has been stuck in English soccer's fifth tier since 2009.

Yet star power is drawing in fans. The club halted season-ticket sales at 5,500 at the 10,500-capacity Racecourse Ground. In 2019-20, Wrexham drew an average of 4,057.

Promoting his latest blockbuster, Free Guy, Reynolds found himself in the unusual position, for a Hollywood actor, of discussing Wrexham.

'Super excited'

"Well, first off, super excited," he told a news conference this month. "I mean, we've made no secret of that, it's the role of a lifetime for both me and for Rob McElhenney."

He also made clear he was aware of British fans' suspicion of Americans.

"I wouldn't dare call it soccer," he said. "I care about my well-being enough to not call it soccer."

Reynolds is not the only Hollywood star getting into soccer.

Eva Longoria owns stakes in Nexaca in Mexico and, like Natalie Portman, in Angel City FC, a Los Angeles women's team.

Will Ferrell, Matthew McConaughey and Drew Carey own stakes in Major League Soccer franchises.

In the 1950s and 1960s baseball was fashionable. Bing Crosby invested in the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bob Hope in the, now renamed, Cleveland Indians, Danny Kaye in the Seattle Mariners. Bill Murray has a stake in the minor-league St Paul Saints.

Justin Timberlake invested in the Memphis Grizzlies and Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith in another NBA team, the Philadelphia 76ers.

Adopted Australian Russell Crowe is part owner of Australian rugby league club the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Wrexham kicks off its season on Saturday after its opening home game was canceled when opponent Yeovil Town reported COVID-19 cases in its squad.

So far, Wrexham has shown no interest in joining the other glamor clubs in chasing Lionel Messi or Harry Kane, but among the summer dealings, which brought in players from Morecambe, Port Vale and Cefn Druids, it also hired journeyman English manager Phil Parkinson, whose last job was in charge of Sunderland.

"We've got to live with that expectancy," Parkinson told The Guardian this week.

"The owners are very genuine. They've got an incredible passion about what they want to achieve...They want to win."

AFP