WREXHAM, WALES – APRIL 22: Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, Owners of Wrexham celebrate with the Vanarama National League trophy as Wrexham win the Vanarama National League and are promoted to the English Football League after victory in the Vanarama National League match between Wrexham and Boreham Wood at Racecourse Ground on April 22, 2023 in Wrexham, Wales. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
The Hollywood script just keeps penning itself for Wrexham AFC and Ryan Reynolds.
Wrexham beat Boreham Wood 3-1 on Saturday to secure the National League title, thus granting the club promotion to English Football League Two for the 2023-24 campaign.
Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, two Hollywood actors, purchased the club for $2.5 million in 2021 with ambitions to turn a smaller team into a "global force."
The 2021-22 campaign saw the Red Dragons finish second in the National League with 88 points, six behind first-place Stockport, before falling short in the promotion playoffs. Then came the meteoric jump this year that has seen them accumulate 110 points in 45 games, with one more fixture to go. They've won 34 games, drew eight and lost just three.
Only one team can gain automatic promotion to EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football and three promotions away from the Premier League giants.
Wrexham faced stout competition from Notts County, which thus far has accumulated 106 points but won't have enough to leap the Red Dragons on the final matchday. The Magpies achieved a historic campaign of their own, having collected 82 points in 2021-22 to finish in fifth, but Wrexham managed to top them.
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“One thing that is running through my head over and over again,” Reynolds said in an on-field interview during the celebrations in front of 10,000 at The Racecourse Ground, “is that people said at the beginning, ’Why Wrexham, why Wrexham?' This is exactly why Wrexham.”
The triumph marked Wrexham's first league title since 1977 when it won the old Division Three, the then third tier of English Football.
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Now, Reynolds and McElhenney have helped build a strong foundation for the men's side -- headlined by striker Paul Mullin and former EPL goalkeeper Ben Foster -- and are making significant investments into bolstering the women's team, too.
“I'm not sure I can actually process what happened tonight," Reynolds said. "I'm still a little speechless.”
Wrexham's rise as a global force will only amplify this summer when it comes to the United States to face Manchester United in San Diego, Calif. and Chelsea in Chapel Hill, N.C.
