It must be difficult as a Wrexham player to be thrusted into a Hollywood environment.
Joining the Red Dragons is no doubt a complete and utter other-worldly experience for a player.
You’ll immediately be the star of a Disney+ series, will have thousands of adoring fans abroad and will be knocking about with the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. It’s definitely a bit of a culture shock.
Maybe now so it’s a little more normalised for the Welsh club, but back in 2021 when everything materialised, we can’t even imagine what it would’ve been like.
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Jake Hyde recalls Ryan Reynolds meeting
That’s why former Wrexham forward Jake Hyde got a little embarrassed when he joined back in 2021, following his initial meeting with Reynolds.
Speaking on the RobRyanRed Podcast, Hyde recalled when he joined back in 2021, even before Paul Mullin was there, and told the story of his initial encounter with the Deadpool actor.
“It was so mad. I knew loads about Ryan, I’ve watched loads of his films,” Hyde began.
“Stupidly, and probably the least cool thing I’ve ever done in my life, I told him straight away that one of my favourite comedies was The Change Up.
“That’s straight off the bat, I didn’t even introduce myself, just ‘hi, I really like Change Up’ – it was terrible! The person he is, I can’t speak highly enough of him – just as a general man, as a polite bloke.
“Across the whole of my career – I’ve played for 10 different clubs – never had a chairman text you on your birthday.
“He’s just, as a bloke, unbelievable. The fact that he is so well known, how well he has done and all the success, for him to still be that man and character is says bundles about him. He’s a really, really top bloke.”
Everyone seems to say the same thing about the owners. They just seem like fantastic lads.
The same can be said for Rob McElhenney
He continued: “And I would say the same about Rob. Rob I spoke to a little less, I didn’t see him quite as much but again, as a bloke, when he was there he was finding out about us, asking about us, how’s the family for example.
“He knew so much about us. One thing I remember thinking about Rob is – because I think when they first took over they were still learning on the job, how a football club is run, even how football is run, just how football is – he knew so much.
“Rob was hooked from the start. I’m sure Ryan was as well, but Rob would surprise me with the things he knew. He would tell me something that happened to me a year ago and I was like ‘how does he even (know that)?”
“So it was obvious that he was super invested and had done all his research for ages. People always say don’t meet your heroes because you’ll be disappointed, but those two exceeded my expectations 10 fold.
“You expect someone that well known and high calibre of a person to get a bit fed up and be like ‘I’ve had enough of that and want to be on my own’, but they weren’t.
“They were so excited to be around us, to talk to us and they always made such an effort. That went a long way with the boys.”
We don’t know what we did to deserve these two, but aren’t we glad it happened? They epitomise absolutely everything good about Wrexham.