The love affair between Wrexham AFC and Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney has been one of the great stories in recent football history, but Football Manager is to thank for the club being taken over.
National League side Wrexham were taken over by Reynolds and McElhenney in 2021, and the club are now destined for promotion, and are in hot pursuit of a return to the football league. But where as some owners who have come over from North America have received criticism, the Hollywood pair have been welcomed with open arms.
Reynolds and McElhenney have embraced the British culture, and are regularly seen watching on from the stands as Wrexham push for promotion. But it's been revealed by executive director Humphrey Ker that Football Manager is responsible for the pair picking Wrexham in the first place.
The Hollywood duo were keen to takeover a lower league side that was in need of a helping hand or a stroke of luck. And Wrexham certainly won the lottery, and have even now been at the centre of a series on Disney +.
On that series, director Ker was also introduced, and the actor and writer was given the role by Reynolds and McElhenney - who he became close with when working on Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Ker inspired McElhenney to get involved in football, and now the trio are working together to build up Wrexham.
But on the Tifo Football Podcast, Ker revealed that there were a number of sides that he picked out as potential business ventures for McElhenney and Reynolds. However, it was Football Manager that contributed to Wrexham being selected as the perfect club.
"I had nothing else to do, so I went on Wikipedia and Football Manager - literally - Football Manager as we know has an incredible database it would be hard to find elsewhere," Ker explained. "I picked out 8-10 clubs in the National League, National League North and South, and League 2.
"I think I've named some of them. Hartlepool was looked at vaguely, Macclesfield was talked about. A few we talked about that we knew were in trouble. We knew from the jump we wanted to find somewhere that needed a helping hand or needed a stroke of luck.
"Some of the ones I looked at initially we struck off because they were in the outskirts of London and Manchester or somewhere we thought there was plenty of opportunity anyway. Wrexham very quickly became top dog through a variety of fans, which sounds like a very pat answer but it's true.
"The season before we came involved, they were averaging 4,500 a week at the Racecourse when they were 19th in the National League. Unbelievable number of people, and that told you they were the definition of a sleeping giant, a fallen great of the game."
And Football Manager was spot on, as it's been a brilliant relationship thus far. However, it will be tough to hear for the other sides that were considered, and perhaps they'll want to increase their appeal on the popular football game.
