The Hollywood story for English side Wrexham continues.
Wrexham earned promotion into the EFL Championship for next season following today’s 3-0 victory over Charlton Athletic. It marked the first time in English football history that a team earned three-consecutive promotions as Wrexham has made the jump from the National League to the Championship in four years.
The club is owned by star actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and has several former Premier League players on its roster. Manager Phil Parkinson has now led four different clubs to promotion in the EFL following his most recent achievement.
Oliver Rathbone scored the opening goal for Wrexham at STōK Cae Ras after just 15 minutes before Sam Smith extended the hosts lead to 2-0 three minutes later. Smith would make it a brace with nine minutes to play as the party started from Wales.
Wrexham will join League One champions Birmingham City in the Championship next season, as well as a playoff winner that will be determined this May.
Stockport County, Wycombe Wanderers, Charlton Athletic, and Leyton Orient are currently in the playoff places, but Leyton Orient could be ousted from the top-six by Reading on the final weekend. Both Leyton Orient and Reading are tied on 75 points apiece.
I wonder how the economic investment ($$$$) of Rob&Ryan compares to the purchase of Leeds a few years ago or the recent buy of Everton by other North American owners
They bought Wrexham for around 2.5 million. Recent valuation had it worth around 100 million (before promotion). In a recent article in Fortune magazine, it was stated that they’ve invested about 11 million in additional money into the club. So a pretty nice return.
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The 49ers purchased the final shares needed for Leeds at an evaluation of 213 million (had they not been relegated it would have been around twice that). Everton was reportedly bought for around 500 million.
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For comparison Dan Friedkin’s net worth is reported at 7.8 billion (owner of Everton and Roma), Ryan Reynolds’ net worth is estimated at 350 million. Ryan and Rob are about to hit a ceiling as they continue up the English football pyramid. Thomas Allen Wagner III who owns fellow promoted club Birmingham City (he’s also American) is 1.6 billion and Knighthead Capital which he is CEO of has over 9 billion in assets. Rob and Ryan did sell a minority stake in Wrexham to the Allyn family who reportedly have a net worth of 1.6 billion last fall so I wouldn’t be surprised if they slowly sell more and more shares of the club to the former medical device manufacturers.
thanks JR, I learned a lot
congratulations to them. I think the next promotion step will be much steeper to climb. we’ll see
The Allyn’s are also American, I neglected to mention that. Lots of American investment in European soccer.
Now that they are in the Championship it is time for them to sign an American goalscorer.
Or Canadian, Ryan Reynolds is from Vancouver.
Cyle Larin? Noted UCONN Husky?
I was thinking more with the success of Josh and Haji, some other American needs to keep the tradition going.
It’s time for both Haji and Josh to go to a better league. They’ve dominated the Championship 2 years in a row, and I think they’ll certainly get EPL interest, though I’m not necessarily saying that’s where they should look to play next season