Revealed: The game that saw Ryan Reynolds catch Wrexham ‘bug’ & why Dragons are ‘beyond a project’ for Hollywood co-owners

The Deadpool actor bought into the Welsh outfit alongside fellow Hollywood star Rob McElhenney back in 2021. They saw Wrexham make it to Wembley in their first full season at the helm, but it was the 2022-23 campaign that really lit the fuse when it comes to passion in the boardroom at SToK Racecourse.

Wrexham enjoyed a memorable cup run last term, while also securing promotion back into the Football League in record-breaking style. Reynolds and McElhenney were regulars at crunch clashes, with Cody Froggatt – who has been rubbing shoulders with the A-list elite while taking pictures for the Dragons – telling 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. 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. 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.”

Reynolds and McElhenney have committed fully to a long-term project at Wrexham, with Froggatt adding on how the pair are able to mix business with pleasure: “He'll [Reynolds] just come down from the suite and just sign a load of autographs literally 10 minutes before kick-off. 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.”

Wrexham have endured a testing start to life back in the Football League, despite being tipped by many to piece together another promotion push in 2023-24, with Phil Parkinson’s side taking nine points from six fourth tier fixtures.