Hollywood superstar Ryan Reynolds has made another donation to the local Wrexham community - by giving an Under-12 boys’ team £1,600 to pay for new kits.
Kayleigh Barton, who set up a fundraising page for her son's team United of Wrexham, said that she was in "complete shock" after Reynolds made a donation of £600 before contributing another payment of a grand.
Reynolds and fellow actor Rob McElhenney bought Wrexham’s National League side in 2021 and are aiming to return the club to the Football League.
They have made a number of other investments in the local community, including donating £10,000 to charity last January after a player’s baby was stillborn, and their ownership has been documented in a television series broadcast on FX.
Ms Barton, who had wrote in the GoFundMe appeal that she wanted all the players in her son’s team to have the same kit, said: "I was nearly in tears. I know how much that money means to the club and the lads. Happy is an understatement."
Speaking to BBC Wales she added: “I set it up the night before and in the morning I had an email saying a Ryan had donated £600. I was like, ‘Who’s Ryan?” So I logged into the GoFundMe page and it said Ryan Reynolds. I couldn’t believe it, I started shaking.”
Reynolds, who is known for starring in the Deadpool franchise among other roles, also messaged the team's founder Andrew Ruscoe to say "enjoy the new uniforms!" with screenshots of interactions appearing on social media.
The Deadpool logo will appear on the front of the kit as "a mark of appreciation.”
Speaking to local newspaper The Leader, Mr Ruscoe said: "We agreed that we had to do something for Ryan as it's not every day you have a Hollywood A-lister giving you donations.
"The donation is a lifeline for us as a club, so we started to think of ideas and felt why not stick the Deadpool logo on it.
"The lads are ecstatic and we want to show our gratitude to Ryan, we just want to thank him as gestures like this show that he genuinely does care for the people of Wrexham."
The donation will cover more than new kits, with Mr Ruscoe saying that the club was finding it difficult during the cost of living crisis.
He added: "Fees keep going up and it's getting harder with the cost of living. We don't want financial barriers to impact participation, so this money just stops that altogether. We've faced a lot of issues since we set this club up.”
