Fantasy football! Movie star’s £2m bid for Welsh club
When fans of a struggling Welsh team heard rumours that A-list actor Ryan Reynolds wanted to help invest a game-changing £2million, they laughed it off.
But national League side Wrexham AFC has confirmed the link – although why the Deadpool star and fellow hollywood actor Rob Mcelhenney have chosen to take over the supporter-owned north Wales club has yet to be revealed.
Reynolds’s only comment to his 16.5million Twitter followers was a cryptic retweeting of a light-hearted message posted by a Wrexham student eight years ago, fantasising about the actor being a nude model in her life-drawing class.
But what began as a joke might now result in one of the most unlikely club takeovers in British football history. Wrexham supporters’ trust director Spencer harris said he had known the identity of the club’s potential backers ‘for a little while’.
Their names had become public knowledge ‘a little bit earlier than it would in any other normal circumstance’ due to the club being community-owned, he said.
At a special general meeting on Tuesday, 1,223 trust members – more than 95 per cent of those asked – voted for talks to proceed.
Mr harris said the decision enabled the club to move into ‘detailed discussions about what a takeover deal could look like’.
he said he had spoken to the actors, both 43, ‘several times’, describing them as ‘very serious, professional and successful people, not just as actors but in the business world as well’. Canada-born Reynolds stars as the irreverent, wise-cracking antihero Deadpool in the hit film series of the same name. Already one of the world’s highest-paid actors, he received a further boost last month when drinks giant Diageo paid £460million for a string of spirits brands, among them a premium gin in which the actor had a large stake.
As to the burning question of ‘why Wrexham?’, Mr harris said: ‘That’s a question for them in good time. We are a team with a proud history... and there’s lots of potential at the club, so why not?’ But an eight-year-old tweet might shed light on the surprise move.
In 2012, Lois Morus replied to a post from a friend complaining about the ‘middle-aged, mid-40s’ subject of their ‘awkward’ class, quipping: ‘I would have taken the course if Ryan Reynolds was the model.’
She added: ‘You never know when Ryan Reynolds is going to turn up in Wrexham.’ Sharing the message on Wednesday night, Reynolds said: ‘Yep, you never know.’ he added: ‘I’ve waited eight years to respond to this tweet.’
Within hours, his responses had attracted more than 130,000 ‘likes’.
As the supporters’ trust confirmed the investment plan by Reynolds and Mcelhenney – best known for his role in the US comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – the two friends were stunned by the unexpected endorsement.
Miss Morus, 27, who lives in Carmarthen, South Wales, said: ‘When you look back at your old statuses, you think “Oh, that’s a bit embarrassing” – but you never really expect an A-list celebrity to bring it back to attention. I just can’t believe it, it’s not really sunk in, it’s all a bit bizarre.’
Miss May, 26, who lives on the Wirral, said the furore was ‘a little nuts’.
‘It would be insane if those messages were what got Ryan Reynolds to Wrexham,’ she told the BBC. ‘I can’t wrap my head round it. I’ve had so many messages. You can see everyone is very excited.’
Asked about the takeover on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said: ‘If he can play centre forward, I’m sure he’d be welcome.’
Wrexham mayor Rob Walsh told local media it was ‘potentially very exciting news’.
‘The interest shown in the club by both gentlemen is really putting the town on the world map,’ he added.
Founded in 1864, Wrexham AFC are the world’s third-oldest professional football club. In 1992, they pulled off one of the all-time great FA Cup giant-killing feats by knocking out holders Arsenal in the third round. But in recent years, Wrexham have fallen on hard times, suffering relegation from the Football League in 2008 and being taken over by supporters in 2011.
They now play in the national League, england’s fifth tier.
‘It’s all a bit bizarre’