January 8 – Three years into their ownership of Wrexham that earned the Welsh club global recognition, Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney are continuing their love affair with the club – and appear gripped by FA Cup fever.
Reynolds and McElhenney jointly bought Wrexham for $2.5 million in 2021 and made the club – currently in League 2, the fourth tier of English football — the subject of popular fly-on-the-wall TV documentary “Welcome to Wrexham.”
On Sunday they were watching from their homes in the United States as Wrexham upset local rivals Shrewsbury from League One in the third round of the world’s oldest domestic knockout competition. The draw for the fourth round is tonight.
Reynolds posted a picture of himself on X, formerly Twitter, sitting next to fellow actor Hugh Jackman while watching the Shrewsbury-Wrexham match. And McElhenney responded by posting: “You should’ve seen my living room.”
Wrexham have a strong tradition in the FA Cup, memorably defeating then-English champion Arsenal 2-1 in the third round in 1992 for one of the competition’s biggest ever shocks. They also reached the quarterfinals in 1997, beating West Ham along the way.
Last season the team beat one second-tier Championship team, Coventry, and then took another, Sheffield United – now in the top flight — to a replay.
“The hype about the place is fantastic,” said Wrexham striker Steven Fletcher, a Scottish international. “When you come in, even for just training days, there’s loads of people around the stadium. I’ve played for Premier League teams and you don’t see that.”
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