How Two Celebrities Built a £150M Football Empire

What happens when two Hollywood stars buy a struggling football club in Wales? Dive into the incredible true story of how Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney turned Wrexham AFC into a global sensation…

a town and its beloved team out to prove that their best days are not behind them The story just begging for a Hollywood ending and getting it Welcome to Rexom a small city in Northern Wales with a football club that was dying Decades of decline no hope and fighting for survival in the fifth tier of English football And then out of nowhere we just became owners of Rexom Association football Oh this is really happening Two actors zero experience with a single unlikely mission You realize you started by saying we’re going to take Rexom to the Premier League and they all recorded it Yeah Okay So that’s what they’re going to leave That is the goal isn’t it Ron Mhenny and Ryan Reynolds took over Rexom for2 million It’s now valued at over 150 million But how did this happen and why Rexom This is the story of how a Hollywood duo built a football empire Before the headlines before the cameras and before La Hollywood Sparkle there was a football club slowly fading away from existence Rexom the third oldest football club in the world was once a team competing in division 2 in the 1970s But as the years went on Rexom decline seemed to get worse and worse as they slowly began to slide down the leagues It was then in 2008 where things got really bad and they were officially relegated from the English Football League It was a historic low for the football club and their fans And things were about to get even worse In 2011 the club almost liquidated due to ownership disputes unpaid wages and unpaid debts There were even stories of fans passing around buckets sparing whatever change they could just to keep the lights on That year Rexom became a fan-owned club under the Rexom supporters trust with an aim of survival and long-term financial stability Stuck in the fifth tier of English football there were no big broadcast deals There were no big sponsorship deals There was pretty much nothing And for over a decade Rexom failed to get back into the EFL But football was a part of this city’s soul And if it wasn’t for the fans showing up every week this club would have surely crumbled Rexom certainly wasn’t glamorous but the club mattered more than anything to the people there It was dark times So when two Hollywood actors both with zero fibble experience started to show interest everybody was asking the same question Why Rexom [Music] Let me take you back to 2020 The number of cases of COVID 19 outside China has increased 13fold We must therefore go into a national lockdown which is tough enough to contain this variant Being locked away was a strange time for us all And with that came boredom And for Rob Mhenny it was the perfect time to watch a TV show that his friend Humphrey Kerr had recommended to him Now something a lot of you might not know is that Humphrey is actually the third character to this story and was integral to this takeover actually happening He’s a successful British comedy writer and actor who’s made a name for himself in America writing scripts for TV pilots So he was just the man that Rob Mhenny was looking for when it came to starting his new TV show Mythic Quest Now I’m sure a lot of you remember but at this time it was Liverpool who were dominating in the Premier League And Humphrey would use his lunch break as the perfect opportunity to watch some games And Rob being your stereotypical American would essentially take a piss He had no clue about soccer as he would call it at the time and he loved nothing more than ripping into Humphrey about his deep love of football But he couldn’t help be intrigued by the emotion of votes in some of these big matches So Humphrey decided he wanted to try and show Rob what football was all about And that’s when he recommended him the TV show Sunderland Till I Die a documentary that follows Sunderland football club as they try and bounce back after relegation from the Premier League So Rob sits down with his wife and sticks on episode 1 And nothing He couldn’t get into it so he switched it off But after a few more weeks that lockdown boredom was really starting to hit So he decided to give it another go And this time he was hooked He ended up binging two seasons and messaged Humphrey immediately Rob was serious He wanted his own team and his own show So Humphrey got to work the only way he knew how Football Manager The task was simple Find potential candidates in need of investment And in the end there were three British clubs that made a final short list Hot Mlesfield and Rexom But you see Rexom stood out for two reasons They retained a loyal and passionate fan base still turning out for National League games in their thousands and they served a giant catchment area without a major club for miles in any direction They were the perfect candidate So Humphrey made contact with Rexom while Rob had another task You see Rob had a lot of money from his extremely popular TV show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia But this was only TV money Rob needed more He needed movie money Enter Ryan Reynolds Now you might know him as the man who plays Deadpool but Ryan Reynolds isn’t just an actor He’s actually an extremely successful businessman From blockbuster films to billion-dollar companies Ryan Reynolds has quietly become one of Hollywood’s smartest businessmen He co-owns Aviation Jin a production company and a marketing company His net worth north of $350 million and still writing But Rob had never even met Ryan His only interaction with him was an Instagram DM that Ryan had sent him about a scene he liked in his show It’s Always Sunny But Rob was looking for sponsorship so he thought he’d try his luck And the reply was something he would never expect I don’t want to sponsor Rexom I want to buy them with you And it was at this moment when a crazy idea just got very real and the attention was about to go global We’re back here with Ryan Reynolds and the other guy Ryan Reynolds and Rob Malenny from Always Sunny in Philadelphia have become the new and unlikely owners of Rexom Football Club What was the connection between you and Rexom Football Club We had no direct connection It was just a feeling What’s the opposite of relegation What’s going on Promotion [Applause] When it was announced people wondered was this just a joke Were these guys actually serious It felt like a publicity stunt or some sort of strange new TV sitcom Two actors one Canadian one American both who had no real interest in football whatsoever They knew it would raise eyebrows And they may not know anything about football but one thing they did know was how to tell a story And with these two in charge you actually had a lethal pair Rob had always been obsessed with storytelling He’d written one of the longest running TV sitcoms in American history And he was born in Philadelphia a place similar in a way to Rexom The people were workingass and the community was always everything And then with Ryan he’s a branding genius And beyond all the jokes there’s someone extremely businesssavvy They weren’t interested in just buying a football club The plan from the very start was to build a story the whole world could root for Welcome to Rexom is streaming now on Hulu New episodes air Wednesdays on Epics It’s Rob Malani and Ryan Reynolds Everybody welcome to Rexom was born A docy series that wasn’t your classic football documentary It wasn’t about the glamour or the trophies It was about the people and they were showing you everything And suddenly people across the world those who didn’t even know Rexom existed started to care They had turned this non-league football club into a global team The results were immediate and massive Merch sales absolutely exploded Social media followers jumped by hundreds of thousands Rexom games broadcast in over 100 countries Tourism in the city spiked Local pubs and cafes reported record years Celebrities started showing up to their matches and American fans were flying all the way over to see fifth tier football And suddenly the people who thought this was all a joke were starting to realize they could not be more wrong However feel good stories are one thing but in football stories don’t pay the bills So the real question did it work financially Robin Ryan had invested over 10 million directly into Rexom That covered wages stadium upgrades staff hires documentary production costs debt clearances and more It was certainly risky to put that sort of money into a football club like Rexom It was pretty much unheard of but the risk paid off big time The show was an absolute master stroke and by season 2 it was getting millions of views every week In 2020 the club was estimated at under2 million And as of today you’re looking at over 150 million And that’s because of everything that they’ve been able to build Streaming rights match revenue sponsorships international branding and match day income doubling The shirt has now become one of the top selling kits in the UK and that exploded in the US and Canadian markets too They were able to get celebrity collabs Ryan had aviation gin and Rob had Mint Mobile Fans were just buying absolutely everything Mugs scarfves baby clothes dog collars you name it and they were probably selling it They had turned football merchandise into a global lifestyle brand But when it comes to the football you can’t exactly write a script So if they were going to make any of this successful they had to perform on the pitch and get back into the EFL And after a tough first season they were finally promoted back into the EFL after 15 long years They secured the league title but it wasn’t easy They managed to just beat Knox County by four points with a very impressive 111 points with a near-perfect home record of 22 wins one draw and zero defeats Now back in League 2 you think the goal would be just to remain in the league avoid relegation at all costs But they wanted more In came James Mlan and Steven Fletcher two very experienced players at domestic and international level And add to that Ben Foster ex United and England goalkeeper signed a new deal Three players playing way below their level And what a season it was From October the 21st to the final day Rexom never dropped below fifth After five straight wins to close the season they finished just four points behind champion Stockport But it didn’t matter Promotion was secured back to back Lee one would surely be different though Would Rexom be out of their depth If they wanted to be competitive they knew things would have to change Sentiment had to go out the window Players with experience of playing in the third tier or above as well as youngsters with high potential were brought in Promotion winners including Anthony Ford James Jones and Jacob Mendy were either let go or had to settle for a reduced role Harsh maybe but last football In order to succeed Lee’s hard decisions were the ones that would need to be made And unfortunately for Mullen the man who spearheaded two straight promotions with 105 goals in 140 games the man who was the poster boy of their show even him had to take a backseat The quality of the team just had to be upgraded And because of that Rexom had a great start to the season but they hit a stumbling block when they were defeated by Birmingham The game now known as the Hollywood Derby with Birmingham partly owned by NFL legend Tom Brady And after 44 games it was Brady’s Birmingham who were already promoted Rexom followed not far behind on 86 points with Wickham who were just two points behind him in third The fight for automatic promotion was on Rexom faced Charlton with a chance to seal a historic first successive promotion And they made it look easy 3-0 with two goals from newly signed striker Sam Smith And with a game to spare they had done it Backto backto back promotions Genuinely just ridiculous Every empire begins with some risk And Rexom it was never a sure thing They didn’t buy a top team They bought one that was seriously struggling How many times have we seen big money owners come in throw a bunch of cash at a team and still fail Just because you have the money it doesn’t mean you will succeed Of course it’s always going to help but there’s a real reason why this worked Rob and Ryan didn’t come into this like big stars There was no ego and they came in willing to learn about the game Rob had actually spent months researching watching Sunderland Till I Die and reading books on fan ownership While Ryan listened to the people asking questions and showing humility and instead of imposing change they earned the trust They clearly really cared about the people And I think the fans could instantly see that And on top of that they were able to create a system where each part fueled the next The documentary built awareness that drove merch sales and that meant they were able to attract better sponsors and raise investment That then allowed them to improve their squad earn promotion and that only fueled more content And then it was time to restart the cycle It was intentional and it was repeatable And still even with all this they could have failed and they nearly did many times In 2022 Rexom lost the promotion playoffs and they lost the FA trophy final Critics called it a Disney disaster but they kept going It could have gone wrong and it probably should have gone wrong but somehow it didn’t Rex are now only 46 league matches away from the holy grail that is the Premier League Now I would be absolutely mind-b blown if they were able to do this again It would probably be one of the most insane things I’ve seen in football but at this point who even knows Sometimes when you throw money at a football club it can have the opposite effect If you want to hear about some teams with stacked talent but still somehow managed to fail you can click to watch now If not thank you for watching Please like and subscribe and I’ll see you on the next