Americans have been getting much more of a taste of the beautiful game in recent years. For one thing, there’s more content about it, including shows like Ted Lasso and, of course, the FX series Welcome to Wrexham, in which viewers get to see Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney get to grips with what it takes to run a soccer club in country that treats the sport like a religion.
Reynolds and McElhenney indicated they wanted to buy Wrexham A.F.C in late 2020, and their desire came to fruition in February 2021. The first season of the show aired a year later, and chronicled the pair’s initial season in charge of the club. It was met with critical acclaim from viewers on both sides of the pond, and the celebrity duo were praised for the way they dove right into British soccer culture, in which clubs aren’t just the playthings of billionaires (for now, anway), but intrinsically and deeply tied to their local communities, who are often working class.
Soccer is a huge business, but Wrexham A.F.C weren’t exactly getting mentioned in the same breath as globally followed clubs like Real Madrid, Arsenal, and Manchester United, each of which are multi-billion dollar operations. When the purchase happened, they were playing in the fifth league of the English football pyramid (Wales has a separate league that they were too good for), also known as the National League.
So, how much did Ryan Reynolds pay for Wrexham? Read on to find out.
How much did Ryan Reynolds pay for Wrexham?
In late 2020 Reynolds and McElhenney created a business called RR McReynolds Company. They used this organization to purchase Wrexham A.F.C for $2 million dollars in February of 2020. While that’s hardly chump change, in terms of the money being thrown about by the top clubs it’s practically peanuts.
To put it into perspective, English club Newcastle United were purchased just over a year later for around $520 million by a Saudi backed company (although many would argue the oil rich nation are the de facto owners, which opens up a whole moral quandry I don’t have the word count to discuss here). This was considered a good deal, as Newcastle were in the Premier League (the top division in the U.K.) and are considered a historic club, with a passionate fanbase. The most valuable club in the world, Spain’s Real Madrid, is valued at around $6 billion.
Another way to look at how cheap this purchase was in football terms is to compare it to player prices. Earlier this summer, Arsenal F.C. bought Declan Rice for just over $130 million. The most expensive transfer fee in history came in 2017, when Paris Saint-Germain (also backed by an oil-rich nation, in this case Qatar) bought Brazillian superstar Neymar for $263 million. So, getting an entire club for 1% of that fee is quite the coup, but also shows the disparity between leagues in the game.
Why did Ryan Reynolds buy Wrexham?
In the show, Reynolds has been fairly forthcoming about what attracted him to Wrexham. First and foremost, it’s a truly historic club, as it was founded in 1864. This makes it the third oldest club in Association Football, and they have a pretty prestigious legacy as a consequence. Reynolds was also driven by McElhenney, who in turn was convinced to purchase the club by Brit Humphrey Ker, with whom McElhenney writes Mythic Quest.
The romance of owning the club and the passion from fans was also a key factor in Reynolds’ purchase. The previous owners, also Americans, had a plan to asset strip it. This view of clubs as profit-making machines has become more and more commonplace in soccer, but the strong supporter groups have managed to keep out some of the worst excesses we see in sporst like NFL and baseball. It’s telling the Wrexham supporter’s group were happy to have Reynolds and McElhenney purchase it.
Finally, despite popular jibes about soccer being low scoring and overly technical, there really is nothing that can match the thrill of watching a match. Like an emotionally taxing yet passionate relationship, the allure of going back to your team despite the disappointment of losses and bad performances remains strong. Reynolds has the soccer bug now, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be getting over it any time soon.
How much is Wrexham worth now?
Estimates indicate that Wrexham is worth around $8 million now, which is a remarkable turnaround. However, much of this is due to the fact that Reynolds and McElhenney have put around $10 million dollars into the club, including buying back the stadium, which had been sold off years before they purchased the club. However, as long as Wrexham continues to improve in the way they have, the pair probably won’t care.