The first happened to the team back in January, when in the match of the 3rd qualifying round, Wrexham defeated Coventry City from the championship with a score of 4:3 and made it to the next round of the FA Cup. The oldest football club in the world has not achieved such success since 2000. But in the fourth round of the cup, where the team from Wales went on to another representative of the top division – Sheffield United, the fairy tale had to end. Wrexham, led by 55-year-old Phil Parkinson, who played most of his career for Reading, almost knocked out the second-place holder in the championship standings from further struggle. Everything was decided in an insidious extra time – in the fifth minute, the Welsh still conceded from a club from the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire. The result is 3:3 on the scoreboard and a replay is ahead, but Wrexham will have to forget about the 1/8 finals of the FA Cup for now.
American actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who invested in the club in 2020, continue to work on the development of the team, and Wrexham has a good chance of jumping into the higher division. Last season, representatives of Hollywood did not stint on the top players in the English Football League. In Wales, it turned out to lure, for example, Paul Mullin from Cambridge United and Ben Tozer, the captain of Cheltenham.
There were other transfers, a little less significant, but, most importantly, Wrexham managed to make a bench reserve, as in the Premier League. According to rumors, newcomers are paid 10 thousand euros a week, which, of course, is a penny by the standards of big clubs, but let’s not forget that we are talking about a non-professional division, which we simply call amateur and have never seen such money there. In addition, the new owners managed to get the world’s largest service for creating and viewing short videos as title sponsors for the team, as well as being the creators of the documentary series “Welcome to Wrexham”, which was released in August this year. So the incentive for the Welsh Reynolds, who, by the way, with his busy schedule, is often present at the team’s matches, and McElhenney provided a good one, now it’s up to the small – and continue to show the result. Now Wrexham has 65 points and the first position in the National League, which were earned in 27 rounds in which the team from Wales chalked up 20 wins and five draws.
A couple of months ago, it was reported that Ryan Reynolds decided to expand his sports interests and invest in an NHL club based in his native Canada. We’re talking, of course, about the Ottawa Senators. But the deal has not yet reached, so the well-being of the Welsh club is unlikely to be threatened and, let’s hope that we still have three or four years left to carry out and consolidate with the help of the new owners all the necessary positive developments and changes in the fate of the oldest football club, which three years ago was on the verge of closing.
