The game that saw Ryan Reynolds catch the Wrexham ‘bug’ has been revealed. However, it was not an enjoyable game as Wrexham were thwarted in the dying seconds.
Football owners these days are more often than not detached from the fanbase they claim to represent. More and more it seems there’s a disconnect between owners and fans across the country. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth at Wrexham, with the local community welcoming Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney with open arms when they took over the club in 2021.
Reynolds and McElhenney have fully immersed themselves into the club
Their first season at the helm was a disappointment as the club failed to achieve promotion and lost out in the FA Trophy Final to Bromley. However, last season the team bounced back and achieved promotion from the National League with a record points tally.
The SToK Racecourse was bouncing come the end of the season has Reynolds and McElhenney joined Phil Parkinson and his side on the field to celebrate their promotion back to the Football League.
The game that saw Ryan Reynolds catch the Wrexham ‘bug’
It was clear that the Hollywood pair caught the Wrexham well before that though. Anyone who has watched the Disney+ documentary Welcome to Wrexham could tell you that.
According to Photographer Cody Froggatt, who has been rubbing shoulders with the A-listers and taking pictures at the League Two side’s stadium, Reynolds falling in love with the club can be pinpointed to one exact moment.
He told Wales Online: “Rob and Ryan are interesting, I can always tell you the game where Ryan caught the bug for the club. It was the Sheffield United game in the fifth round of the FA Cup.”
That game will be remembered as an FA Cup cracker. The Welsh Dragons were on the verge of reaching the fifth round for the first time in 26 years but Sheffield defender John Egan ruined the script with a 95th-minute equaliser to make it 3-3. Several weeks later United won thee fourth-round replay with Wrexham, 3-1.
“Rob and Ryan are really nice, and they’re media savvy at the end of the day so they do play up for the cameras a little bit,” Froggatt went on. “I’ve met Blake (Lively, Reynolds’ wife) and I’ve met Rob’s wife and I’ve met all the kids and that. They are just people at the end of the day and they are just chilled out and really nice.
“Obviously when you’re first shooting them you do get a bit star-struck, but after the first time you’ve done it just becomes a bit normal. Like when Will Ferrell turned up one day, as we say at the ground – just another day at Wrexham! Because it does get a bit like that, you never know who’s going to turn up.
“The first thing I do when I walk in is if I see the other photographers I’ll go: ‘Is anyone in the box today? And they’ll go: ‘Oh, X is in or Y is in!’ And you go: ‘Alright, OK!’ It does become a bit normalised in a sense that you just get used to them.”
“They are massive on the community aspect of the club”
The Hollywood pair have made clear their intentions to honour the traditions and customs of the historic club. They have successfully managed to balance incorporating modern commercialisation methods while keeping the core of the club what is it.
Reynolds and McElhenney have been able to walk the tight rope between business and pleasure, which is evident in their day to day interactions with the fans.
“He’ll [Reynolds] just come down from the suite and just sign a load of autographs literally 10 minutes before kick-off,” added Froggatt. “He’ll come down half an hour before kick-off and he’ll just spend time down there with the fans talking with them and signing stuff. They are massive on the community aspect of the club, you can see that in the title parades. I think it has gone beyond a project, it’s gone to their hearts the club, they are all in with it.”