Last year, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) joined many prominent American businessmen by dipping their toes in English football, and while their now beloved Wrexham AFC may lack the trophies and name recognition on Liverpool or Manchester United, both actors are set to change that with their docuseries Welcome to Wrexham.
The lowly Wrexham AFC has a long history in world football being Wales oldest club and the third oldest professional football team in the world, however, things had not been so rosy for Wrexham over the past 100 years or so with the team currently sitting in English football’s fifth tier competition level. Reynolds and McElhenney pledged over $2m in investments for the club, aside from the considerable media exposure their involvement with the team might bring and that was enough to convince fans and ownership to jump on board.
Now the actors are already showing their full commitment to Wrexham by posting the first of what probably be many ads to promote the upcoming Welcome to Wrexham documentary that will follow the team’s journey as they try to gain promotion to the higher echelons of the English sport. The 2-minute video features Reynolds and McElhenney alongside their Welsh translator Maxine, who -like many- is a little skeptical of the pair’s experience in running a professional sports team.
Welcome to Wrexham will air on FX, though no official release date has been announced yet. Judging from the footage of excited Wrexham fans dressed as Deadpool, it’s safe to say Reynolds and McElhenney have boosted morale since Wrexham climbed from the middle of the standings all the way to a sixth place that would qualify them for the playoffs to fight for a shot at promotion to climb onto the next tier league, EFL League Two.
While it may be surprising for many, Reynolds and McElhenney are no pioneers in this venture as currently almost half of English Premier League teams are owned -at least partially- by American investors, a trend that trickles down to the lower leagues. The gist of the whole business is pretty simple, for a mere fraction of what an NFL or NBA team costs, investors gain the chance to one day ascend to Premier League football where competing is enough to win some big profits for teams running on smaller budgets, just like in Football Manager 21.
With Reynolds constantly proving he’s one of the most business-savvy people in Hollywood, it’s no wonder he and McElhenney decided to take a chance on Wrexham. Maybe Reynolds will warm up to the idea of playing Johnny Cage in the next Mortal Kombat.
Source: Ryan Reynolds|YouTube