The TV Show Climbing Back Up the English Soccer Ladder

Just two years after its acquisition by a pair of Hollywood actors—who turned the club into a documentary—Wrexham AFC won promotion to the fourth tier of the English game

Wrexham sealed a promotion to the English Football League after a victory over Boreham Wood on Saturday. Photo: Jan Kruger/Getty Images

The vast majority of Wrexham AFC’s century and a half as a soccer team in North Wales has been easily forgettable. The club has never played in the top tier of English soccer, nor has it ever won a major trophy.

That history took a dramatic and unexpected turn in 2021. Though Wrexham still had no major trophies, it gained a pair of co-owners who happened to be Hollywood actors determined to rewrite the fifth-tier club’s fortunes in two huge ways. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney hoped that they could turn it into a winner. But they were certain they could turn Wrexham into a TV star.

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