Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Football, Non-League, Sunderland, League Two, Wrexham, Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Sidle
Topics: Football, Non-League, Sunderland, League Two, Wrexham, Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have already made themselves legends in Wrexham, but their purchase of the club wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for a third man.
Between them, the two Hollywood actors have turned things around at Wrexham, since buying the club in November 2020, just months after they'd finished 19th in the National League.
In less than three years, they have turned the Welsh side into champions, earning them a spot back in the Football League, after 15 years in non-league football.
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Last Saturday was the culmination of all the hard work they've done, and the work by manager Phil Parkinson, as the team beat Boreham Wood to confirm their title win.
Ben Foster captured the moment beautifully for his vlog, via a chest camera, but the two owners showed just as much emotion as the passionate fans.
Reynolds and McElhenney both shed tears of joy after the win, and it feels like they were born to be the owners of the Red Dragons.
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However, it may never have happened if it wasn't for a friend of McElhenney's, and his suggestion the Always Sunny in Philadelphia star watch a Netflix documentary.
According to the Independent, British comedy actor and writer Humphrey Ker was integral to the whole takeover, having worked with the American on Mythic Quest.
Ker's love of football, and the Liverpool team he supported, was often mocked by his colleague but the 46-year-old saw the emotion involved in the famous Champions League comeback against Barcelona.
The Liverpool fan then suggested the actor watch Netflix's Sunderland Till I Die, and he eventually binged watched the whole thing and became besotted by the emotion of promotion and relegation and wanted to get involved in football.
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Ker helped identify a number of clubs who needed investment and also made the original contact with the Wrexham Supporters’ Trust.
When McElhenney then reached out to Reynolds about sponsoring the club, the Canadian replied "I don’t want to sponsor Wrexham, I want to buy them with you."
Having been partially inspired struggles down to League One, and difficulty getting back into the Championship, the owners have their eye on meeting the Black Cats eventually.
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According to the Deadpool actor, they have lofty ambitions of one day reaching the Premier League, something he admitted sounds crazy.
After what they've done in less than three years, and with the passion they have for the club, you'd be mad to bet against them.