Tag: Ryan Reynolds

A Wrexham sequel? Reynolds and McElhenney invest in Liga MX side Necaxa

The actors look to be expanding their club ownership from Wales to Mexico

After the huge success of their investment in Wrexham, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney look to be heading to Mexico.

According to a report in Variety, the actors and Wrexham co-owners have purchased a “significant” stake in Liga MX side Necaxa. Sportico would later confirm Variety’s report.

The pair paid just $2.5 million for Wrexham in 2020, with the Welsh club in the fifth-tier National League at the time.

Less than four years later, Wrexham is heading to League One after a second straight promotion, and the docuseries “Welcome to Wrexham” has become an Emmy-winning hit.

Reynolds and McElhenney will now attempt to repeat the feat in Mexico, though Necaxa already plays at the highest level of Mexican club soccer.

But the club has fallen on hard times compared to its heydey in the 1990s, when it won three domestic titles. Los Rayos were last crowned champion of Mexico in 1998.

The report in Variety states that actress Eva Longoria, who became an investor in Necaxa in 2021, helped bring Reynolds and McElhenney into the fold at the Aguascalientes-based club.

It is unclear what role Reynolds and McElhenney will play in Necaxa’s leadership, with the pair not believed to be taking a majority stake in the club. Also unclear is whether, or how, a docuseries surrounding the club could be produced.

After the huge success of “Welcome to Wrexham” though, the prospect of a sequel would undoubtedly be an appealing one for the actors.

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Ryan Reynolds makes a hilarious Travis Kelce photo edit to incredible Taylor Swift and Blake Lively pic

Reynolds wasn’t going to pass up a chance to poke fun at his wife and friend.

Music mogul and icon Beyoncé had the London premiere of RENAISSANCE: A Film by Beyoncé on Thursday, November 30, bringing celebrities and fans together to celebrate her tour movie.

MORE: Beyoncé shines at Renaissance tour film London premiere with stars like Taylor Swift in attendance.

Both actress Blake Lively (Gossip Girl, A Simple Favor) and mega pop star Taylor Swift were in attendance. The two are close friends and posed for a stunning picture at the event that Swift would eventually share to her personal Instagram account.

Lively’s husband, comedian and actor Ryan Reynolds of Deadpool and Welcome to Wrexham fame, decided to have a little fun with the picture by way of a hilarious edit. Reynolds put himself in place of his wife, and changed out Swift for her new NFL beau, Travis Kelce, in the image shared to his personal Instagram account with the caption “I feel like I should remember this.”

Taylor Swift arrives with Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman at MetLife for Chiefs-Jets

Taylor Swift, Hugh Jackman, and Ryan Reynolds were among the celebs to watch Travis Kelce and the Chiefs against the Jets

It was a Sunday Night Football game in Week 4.

Given the “A” listers present at MetLife you would have thought it was the postseason or Super Bowl.

The most anticipated arrival for Kansas City Chiefs at New York Jets wasn’t Aaron Rodgers.

It was pop star Taylor Swift and part of her entourage included actors Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman among others. She was there to see Travis Kelce and his team play Gang Green.

‘Welcome to Wrexham’ season two gets release date

The breakout hit show will return in September for its second season

“Welcome to Wrexham” is coming back soon.

The breakout hit show confirmed on Friday that its second season will debut on September 12 on FX and streaming on Hulu, and internationally on Disney+.

The first season of the show chronicled actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds as they purchased and took over Wrexham AFC, a fifth-tier Welsh club looking to advance up the English pyramid.

The show became a breakout hit in the United States, as the story of the underdog Welsh side resonated with audiences across the country. After the first season’s finale aired last October, McElhenney confirmed that the show would return for a second season in 2023.

The show’s first season was recently nominated for six Emmys, including Outstanding Unstructured Reality Series.

Season two will follow the team in its (spoiler alert!) ultimately successful campaign to earn promotion, as Wrexham was crowned champion of the National League and earned the right to play in League Two in the 2023-24 season.

The team is currently touring the United States in its preseason, with its schedule including matches against Chelsea, Manchester United, and the reserve squads of the LA Galaxy and Philadelphia Union.

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Wrexham AFC’s summer tour: All the U.S. games from Chapel Hill to California

Tickets for the match in Chapel Hill are already sold out, y’all.

America’s favorite Welsh soccer club is touring the U.S. this summer.

Wrexham AFC – the team co-owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and the subject of the FX docuseries “Welcome To Wrexham” – will play four matches on American soil in July.

The tour begins on July 19 at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Wrexham will face English Premier League giants Chelsea in a friendly. Tickets for that match are already sold out, and it’s the first time Kenan – home of the North Carolina Tar Heels football team – will host an international soccer match. If you were lucky enough to snag tickets, perhaps you can also catch Roy Williams and his wife Swag Surfin’ there.

Other tour stops include July 22 in Los Angeles against LA Galaxy II, July 25 in San Diego versus Manchester United, and July 28 in McElhenney’s hometown of Philadelphia against Philadelphia Union II.

At the end of its last campaign, Wrexham was promoted to the Football League after spending 15 seasons in the National League, the fifth tier of English soccer.

Reynolds and McElhenney purchased the club in 2020, and the team has seen its fanbase grow in the U.S. since the premiere of the FX docuseries — even Paul Rudd is a fan.

The co-owners have also been trying to recruit a star to the team, like Gareth Bale, but have been unsuccessful so far. Perhaps Inter Miami CF owner David Beckham can loan the club Lionel Messi for a match or two.

JJ Watt says Burnley investment came after talking Wrexham with Ryan Reynolds

If you’re buying into a UK soccer club, might as well call an expert

It sounds like the audience for “Welcome to Wrexham” includes J.J. and Kealia Watt.

Speaking just two days after the couple announced their investment in Championship-winning Burnley, J.J. Watt said that their considerations over whether to buy into English soccer included a chat with the most famous club owner in North America, Ryan Reynolds.

“I did talk to Ryan. I wanted to get his perspective, find out what his experience has been,” Watt said on Wednesday during an appearance on the ESPN show Get Up. “When you look at the parade they’ve just had, the turnout, and the ability to take eyeballs from around the globe and put them on Wrexham.”

Reynolds and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” actor Rob McElhenney certainly have some expertise to bring to the table for new club owners. Wrexham recently clinched the National League championship, and promotion to League Two, while drawing unprecedented attention in the U.S. for a non-Premier League team.

“I have been a football fan for a long time,” said Watt on where his interest in Burnley began, before noting that being married to an eight-year NWSL veteran with three U.S. women’s national team caps is also a big factor. “Obviously, my wife is a professional soccer player, and I really wanted to get into ownership.”

Burnley ‘slightly different’ from Wrexham

Watt may be new to soccer ownership, but he seems to know full well that Wrexham and Burnley are not in the same situation. Reynolds and McElhenney purchased Wrexham outright in 2021, while the Watts are minority investors with Burnley. ALK Capital, a U.S.-based investment firm, owns the bulk of shares in the Clarets.

Burnley is also three tiers higher than Wrexham, and spent just one season in the Championship after six straight Premier League campaigns.

“Obviously, it’s a slightly different situation from a club perspective, but you want to hear from someone doing it right,” acknowledged Watt before pivoting to a possible similarity between the clubs.

“That’s what Kealia and I want to do, take eyeballs from all around the world and put them on Burnley because we think that town, that story, it’s been around since 1882,” said Watt. “We want people to get to know about Burnley, and there are so many Americans that are getting into the Premier League right now and not knowing which club to support. We want them to support Burnley.”

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Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are very publicly recruiting Gareth Bale to join Wrexham

Good effort here.

Look, if you’re Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, you’re over the moon right now with Wrexham AFC getting promoted to the Football League

The co-owners of the soccer team are rightfully celebrating the achievement for their squad, and now they’re even leaning into recruiting, and why not?

They got some awesome congrats from retired Welsh soccer star Gareth Bale and decided it was time to get him on board to join their squad. Just check out the whole Twitter exchange below and enjoy. Bale didn’t exactly say no, for what it’s worth! Even if it didn’t work, this is so fun to see:

 

McElhenney and Reynolds beg Bale to un-retire and join Wrexham

Could Bale be heading from the golf course to League Two?

After seeing Wrexham promoted to League Two for next season, co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are now hoping to sweet talk none other than Gareth Bale into coming out of retirement to join the Welsh club.

Reynolds and McElhenney definitely have the right idea for a meeting venue, aiming to persuade Bale during a round of golf.

Bale retired after the 2022 World Cup but at age 33, he’s shown that he still has plenty to give when healthy.

That was displayed perhaps most dramatically when Bale scored an equalizer in the dying seconds of last year’s MLS Cup, helping LAFC to a championship in the final club game of his career.

Though Bale seems to be enjoying a retirement that has seen him golf more than ever, Wrexham‘s celebrity owners are hoping that a little bit of cajoling on the golf course, combined with Bale’s Welsh heritage, could get him to change his mind.

For his part, Bale seems open to the idea of a round of golf, if not necessarily the comeback part just yet.

If the chance to play for a TV-star club in his home country isn’t enticing enough, Reynolds offered to sweeten the deal on Twitter, saying he “will shave a professional-grade golf course into Rob’s back if you’ll give Wrexham a season.”

Now that’s pretty enticing.

Wrexham have had some success in this department in the recent past, as former England goalkeeper Ben Foster came out of retirement late in the season and ended up making a vital penalty save for the club on its way to promotion.

Wrexham clinched promotion from the National League last weekend with a 3-1 win over Boreham Wood.

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Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were in tears following Wrexham AFC’s long-awaited promotion to the Football League

Today, we are all fans of Wrexham.

After 15 long years, Wrexham AFC is going back to the Football League.

The Welsh soccer club – which has seen its fanbase in the U.S. grow quite a bit since it was purchased by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in 2020 and became the subject of the FX docuseries “Welcome to Wrexham” – secured a 3-1 win over Boreham Wood on Saturday. That made Wrexham the champions of the National League (the fifth tier of English soccer) and earned the club promotion to the fourth-tier English Football League for the next season.

Paul Mullin bagged two goals in the victory, which threw fans of the club into a frenzy. Some, like bar patrons in McElhenney’s hometown of Philadelphia, cheered. Others, like McElhenney – the creator of the hit show It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia – were moved to tears.

And here’s an angle of the celebration that Paul Rudd filmed:

Here’s how other Wrexham fans celebrated…

Ryan Reynolds had the classiest response to Wrexham’s thrilling win against Notts County

All owners should be like this.

Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney — along with the FX documentary series Welcome to Wrexham — put the fifth-tier, non-EFL National League on the global stage the past couple years with their purchase of Wrexham AFC.

And while the docu-series’ first season was an excellent start to the journey, the second season is going to be even wilder mainly thanks to the non-scripted drama of Wrexham’s matches. Hopefully, the show also gives credit to another remarkable story playing out in the National League. Reynolds himself has taken notice.

With just four matches remaining, Wrexham and Notts County are both in an astounding battle for the lone automatic promotion spot to the EFL’s League Two. The second-place team has to go through a grueling play-off for the second spot, so Monday’s match between Wrexham and Notts County was seen as a season-defining game.

The game itself had all the drama you’d hope for in a TV series. Wrexham fell behind just before half and responded by scoring two straight goals to take the lead. The two sides, again, went back and forth until Wrexham took the lead for the second time in the 78th minute.

Then, deep into stoppage time, Notts County had a penalty saved by veteran Premier League goalkeeper Ben Foster (who came out of retirement to join Wrexham). It preserved Wrexham’s 3-2 win, giving Wrexham a three-point lead in the table with a game in hand on Notts County.

Now, the series could easily frame Notts County as the villain in Wrexham’s journey for promotion. But in the post-match interview, Reynolds took a different approach. He gave Notts County high praise for their historic season and advocated for a second automatic promotion spot.

Seriously, that’s all class from Reynolds.

Fans also appreciated the respect that Reynolds showed there.