Is Ryan Reynolds the unsinkable celebrity brand?

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On Saturday afternoon Canadian A-list actor Ryan Reynolds tweeted the following: “I just lost 9 years off my life. And I’m okay with that. Apologies to my family. Also, bury me in Wales.”

If that doesn’t make sense to you, then you presumably missed Wrexham AFC’s victory over the mighty Dover Athletic. Having been 5-2 down after 63 minutes, Wrexham rallied to win the game 6-5. If it still doesn’t make sense to you that the guy who played Deadpool is tweeting about a game in the National League, the fifth tier of British football, then you obviously missed the fact that Reynolds, and actor pal Rob McElhenney, bought the club back in 2020.

Why would two (ok, one and a half) Hollywood actors purchases a semi-professional Welsh football club? There hasn’t been a particularly good explanation for this, other than, perhaps, that it was up for sale and credits itself as the second oldest professional football club in the world. They play games at the 10,000 seater (just about the highest non-league attendance) Racecourse Ground, which the club leases from Wrexham Glyndwr University. And Wrexham, if you didn’t already know, is on the English border in north Wales, far closer to the footballing meccas of Liverpool and Manchester than it is to Wales’ largest cities, Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.

All of this might’ve contributed to why Wrexham seemed a palatable option, once Reynolds and McElhenney had decided to buy a football club. But why decide to buy a football club in the first place? They are not famous as good investments, and if you’re a much-loved actor who wishes to remain much-loved, then a move into football club ownership makes about as much sense as branching out into the puppy euthanizing business.