To those who say football is only a game, tell them to go to Wrexham.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s an unbelievable place now,” marvels 76-year-old John Evans in his wheelchair outside the town’s historic Racecourse football stadium. A crowd has gathered around a brass band playing Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon and a carnival atmosphere fills the Mold Road.
Evans, who has terminal cancer, used to cycle 23 miles to watch his beloved Wrexham as a teenager but has not watched many games recently due to ill-health. The club learned about his situation and gave him two of the most sought-after tickets in Wales. “It’s really special. It’s a dream come true,” he says. “The good days are back now, aren’t they?”
View image in fullscreenWrexham owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds during the home match against Notts County on 10 April. Photograph: Matthew Ashton/AMA/Getty Images
In a script from a Hollywood film set, little Wrexham AFC are on the brink of a return to the football league for the first time in 15 years following their beguiling takeover by the actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. The world’s third-oldest professional football club, nicknamed the Dragons, will be promoted on Saturday if they beat Boreham Wood, in a party that could well be heard across the Atlantic.
“I just wanted to be here in person to experience the atmosphere,” said Joe Donahue, 42, sipping a Wrexham lager opposite the stadium after a 9,000-mile round-trip from his native Alabama. He is one of legions of North American fans who have become hooked after watching the Disney/HBO documentary Welcome to Wrexham, which charts the club’s takeover by Reynolds and McElhenney in November 2020.
View image in fullscreenJohn Evans, 76, used to cycle 23 miles to watch Wrexham as a teenager. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Tourists from all over the world have descended on Wrexham since the takeover and the club has a growing swell of A-list fans. Will Ferrell was pictured having a pint with fans in February while the actors Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Kaitlin Olson, McElhenney’s co-stars in the sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, watched Tuesday night’s 3-0 win over Yeovil Town at the Racecourse ground, the oldest international football stadium still in use.
Maurice Cargius, a local taxi driver, was asked by an Australian visitor last weekend for “a grand tour” of the town (local people insist on calling Wrexham a town, despite it being given city status in December). A wall in the Turf pub, which features prominently in the show and is next to the stadium, is filled with the signatures of honeymooners and holidaymakers from as far as Malaysia and South Africa. One told the landlord he was amazed it was a real pub, not a film set.
Donahue, a loud-talking Alabaman with a goatee dyed Wrexham red, said he felt a “special connection” to the club and had been greeted enthusiastically by locals: “I don’t really have any friends in Alabama and everybody here has just been so quick to talk to me and be friendly. They’re just nice people.”
“I think it’s amazing,” said Paula Masters, 51, shaking Donahue’s hand between pulling pints at Maesgwyn village hall. Some fans were “a bit resentful” about tourists buying up tickets (home games sell out weeks in advance) but most people welcome the influx of new money, she said. The documentary was “putting us on the map”, she added: “No one would ever come and visit Wrexham, let’s be honest, would they? I think it’s wonderful.”
View image in fullscreenAlabama-based Wrexham fan Joe Donahue has flown in to watch the final two home games of the season. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Once the biggest club in Wales, Wrexham have languished in the fifth tier of English football for 15 years. After coming close last season to escaping the “purgatory” of the National League, the lowest level of professional football, they are only one win away from promotion. It would, says the club’s honorary vice-president, Spencer Harris, be “one of the biggest days in the history of the town”.
Outside the stadium, the stars and stripes fly as prominently as the red dragon. There is a buzz of excitement as McElhenney emerges from a blacked-out people carrier in sunglasses to sign autographs. At first, some fans were suspicious about why two actors who knew little about football wanted to buy the club.
View image in fullscreenPaula Masters said most people in Wrexham welcomed the influx of new money. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
McElhenney described in the documentary how he was drawn to Wrexham as it reminded him of working-class Philadelphia, where he grew up. But to take the 158-year-old club back up the football pyramid he needed “movie star money – more than that, I needed superhero movie star money”, which is where Deadpool star Reynolds came in. They bought the club for a rumoured £2m and transformed its prospects almost overnight. “Ryan and Rob are like gods around here,” says Masters.
Any cynicism is long gone as fans sing their names from the terraces: “Less than a mile from the centre of town, a famous old stadium’s crumbling down. No one’s invested so much as a penny. Bring on the Deadpool and Rob McElhenney,” goes the song by lifelong supporter Michael Hett, whose band, the Declan Swans, have been invited to open two shows for Kings of Leon at the 10,000-capacity Racecourse next month. “We’ve played in front of a maximum 700 people before,” Hett laughs. “I’m still pinching myself now.”
View image in fullscreenMichael Hett says he is pinching himself that his band, the Declan Swans, have been asked to open for Kings of Leon’s stadium gig. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
It is barely a decade since Wrexham fans gave their life savings to raise more than £100,000 in seven hours to save the club, which had earlier spent 18 months in administration. After years of hard times the town deserves its newfound success, says Wayne Jones, the owner of the Turf pub: “As the saying goes, It’s Always Sunny in Wrexham and it’s our time to have a bit of sunshine.”
