Wrexham earns promotion on wild journey under Ryan Reynolds
Wrexham secured promotion to the fourth tier of English soccer on Saturday, achieving the first part of the dream of celebrity owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
The Hollywood actors were among a crowd of more than 10,000 at the Racecourse Ground in north Wales to see Wrexham clinch the National League title with a 3-1 win over Boreham Wood.
Reynolds and McElhenney seemingly have become soccer fanatics since completing their out-of-nowhere purchase of the Welsh club for $2.5 million in 2021.
An offshoot of the takeover was the making of a fly-on-the-wall documentary — entitled "Welcome to Wrexham" — that has charted the journey of a historic but down-on-its-luck soccer team run by two actors learning the ropes of sports club ownership.
The second season of the show will have a happy ending, with Wrexham heading back into the English Football League — the three divisions below the Premier League — for the first time in 15 years.
Wrexham is four points clear of second-placed Notts County with one round of games left, so is guaranteed the sole automatic promotion spot to League Two.
Among the spectators at the Racecourse was Paul Rudd, another Hollywood actor who was spotted drinking a beer with locals ahead of the game and watched the game in the directors' box with Reynolds and McElhenney.
Reynolds is best known for starring in the "Deadpool" movies, while McElhenney is the creator of TV show "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia." One of their stated aims when buying Wrexham was to lead the 158-year-old club — the world’s third-oldest professional club — to the Premier League and the journey is well underway.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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