Actor Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham AFC — the world’s 3rd-oldest soccer team — to play its biggest game of all time

Ryan Reynolds has made an almost 50X return on a tiny Welsh soccer team.

When Reynolds and fellow actor Rob McElhenney, best known for “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” bought Wrexham AFC in 2021 for about $2.6 million, it played in England’s fifth-tier soccer league and placed eighth. Now, it is knocking on the door of the country’s top league and is worth around $130 million.

‘Home! Chelsea! Yes!’

It did not take long for the Hollywood owners to bring the team out of obscurity, even though Wrexham is known as being the third-oldest existing professional soccer team in the world. Wrexham was founded over 161 years ago, in October 1864.

Five years of success after success has brought the stars’ team to the fifth round of the FA Cup, the final 16 teams of England’s biggest tournament and the oldest national soccer competition in the world.

Wrexham plays Chelsea FC, a team from England’s top-flight English Premier League, on Saturday at 12:45 p.m. ET. Chelsea is one of the wealthiest teams in the world and would typically crush lower-tiered teams. However, Wrexham has had magic surrounding it lately.

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It already defeated Premier League team Nottingham Forest in the third round of the FA Cup (3-3, won on penalties) and Ipswich Town, a team ahead of Wrexham in its own division, in the fourth round (1-0).

“Home! Chelsea! Yes!” Reynolds said in an X video after learning about his team’s opponent.

While Wrexham has played both Chelsea and world-famous Manchester United in exhibition games, this is by far the biggest team it has played in real competition since Reynolds took the helm. His time as owner has been nothing short of a fairy tale for supporters over the last five years.

In 2022-2023, Wrexham won the National League, gaining promotion to the fourth tier, English League Two. Finishing in second place in consecutive years has garnered Wrexham a promotion to the EFL Championship, England’s second-highest league, where the team currently sits.

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After Saturday’s match, Wrexham will continue its push to make the Premier League. As it stands, the team is in sixth place with 11 games remaining. The top two teams in the league will gain automatic promotion to the Premier League, while third through sixth will play in a four-team, single-elimination tournament with the winner getting promoted.

Wrexham would likely have to beat other giant clubs after Chelsea to win the FA Cup, though, which seems an unlikely outcome.

However, a win against the Blues would still be the biggest in its history in a year in which bigger upsets have happened. In January, Macclesfield FC shocked Crystal Palace 2-1. Macclesfield is a sixth-tier team with part-time players, while Crystal Palace was the defending champion and is in the Premier League.

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