Wrexham's Hollywood Project Keeps Delivering
Football fans have (probably) heard of Wrexham, a historic Welsh club that's attracting the attention of the entire English football world for various reasons, including its famous owners, Hollywood stars, and a docuseries about the club. Despite all the hype surrounding Wrexham's current situation, the truth is they've had a tremendous rise in recent years and are a team worth following to see how far they can go.
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A Club With Deep Roots in Football History
While many people outside the British Isles only became familiar with Wrexham a few years ago, it is actually one of the oldest professional clubs in the world, the third oldest and the oldest in Wales, having been founded in 1864. Until 2012, it was believed that the club was founded in 1872; however, evidence was found that year supporting 1864 as the club's actual founding date.In October 1864, members of Denbighshire County, a cricket club, who wanted to further promote the sport in the area, decided to create Wrexham, as we just mentioned the third professional football club in the world, after Notts County and Stoke City. To give you an idea of how old the club is, it should be noted that at that time, it had not yet been established that each football team should have eleven players on the pitch, and this meant that Wrexham played matches with 10 players and even with more than eleven.
Finding a Place in the English Football System
In the 1877-78 season, the Football Association of Wales created the Welsh Cup, in which Wrexham participated. A few years later, they also began competing in the English FA Cup. Until 1921, the club participated in Welsh competitions and the English FA Cup, although they also played in The Combination League, a tournament with English and Welsh teams, in which Wrexham participated for several seasons.In fact, in 1921, when the Third Division North (the third tier of English football at the time) was created, the club was playing in The Combination League and decided to remain within the Football League, thus establishing themselves as a football club within the English system. The club remained in that category until the creation of the fourth tier, where they also played.
The club's history has fluctuated between these categories, except for a few seasons in the late 1970s and early 1980s when they played in the Second Division (second tier at that time). In 2008, after several very inconsistent seasons, they were relegated from the Football League for the first time.
Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds - one of the investors in Wrexham
The Hollywood Takeover and a Global Spotlight
In 2020, actors Rob McElhenney (also known as Rob Mac) and Ryan Reynolds were looking for a football club to invest in, and by the end of that year, they decided to invest in Wrexham after learning about the club's long history and the city where it's located, a place they considered suitable for their purposes. In early 2021, after approval from the club's board, the purchase of Wrexham was completed.At the time, Wrexham was still in non-league football and hadn't returned to the Football League since 2008. After the purchase, filming began on Welcome to Wrexham, the club's docuseries, which showed part of the team's daily life and the experiences of its new owners in the city and as directors of a football club.
The name of the American owners attracted a new group of fans to the club, and many brands and sponsors began to look towards Wrexham, creating unprecedented attention for a non-league team.
Manager Phil Parkinson
Phil Parkinson and an Unprecedented Rise
In the summer of 2021, the club hired Phil Parkinson as manager. He already had a name for himself in the Football League, having led several teams to promotion, managed historic clubs like Bolton, Sunderland, and Charlton, and made history with Bradford City by taking them to the League Cup final.The new North American investment had an immediate impact in that first season as they managed to enter the promotion play-offs and the FA Trophy final, although they were defeated in both. Although they had already made some eye-catching signings in the previous season, in this new season they signed several players who came from Football League teams and that resulted in a noticeable superiority in the division as they won the National League with 111 points and with only 3 defeats in 46 games.
In the summer of 2023, the team's line followed the same initial strategy; investment in signings, in the club's infrastructure, more and more sponsors were maintained, in addition to continuing with Welcome to Wrexham, which was starting the recording of its third season and which had had some success, especially in the American market.
Among the signings were names like James McClean and Steven Fletcher, who had played several seasons in the Premier League, demonstrating the team's considerable depth compared to other teams in the same league. That year, Wrexham finished second in League Two, guaranteeing them automatic promotion.
With two consecutive promotions, it might have seemed that Parkinson's team was reaching its peak, understanding how difficult it is for a club, under normal circumstances, to stay in the Football League, let alone reach League One, where several clubs that were playing in the Premier League just a few years prior are now competing. However, Wrexham's project, unprecedented in English football, was unlike any other, and above all, it was clear that it wasn't simply another toy for its famous owners, as the seriousness of their decisions was evident and the results were bearing that out.
Once again this summer, the eyes of Football League fans were on which players would arrive at Wrexham, and on this occasion, players like Matty James and Jay Rodriguez stood out. Against all odds, the Welsh club finished second in League One, only behind Birmingham City, another project that had seen almost unprecedented investment for the division.
That position guaranteed them promotion to the Championship and completed a feat with few precedents: three consecutive promotions, and all the more remarkable given that they began their journey outside of the Football League.
Wrexham began their Championship journey in the 2025-26 season, a historic one for the club as they reached the second tier for the second time since the institution's creation and with a tendency to surpass that ceiling.