Wrexham’s Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney will PLAY for the club in seven-a-side soccer tournament

Wrexham co-chairs Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have been named in the club’s initial squad for a seven-a-side tournament due to take place this summer in the United States.

The Hollywood actors, who bought the club in 2021, are due to play alongside Wrexham player-coach David Jones and former players Paul Rutherford, Shaun Pearson and Mark Carrington.

Wrexham have signed up to play in The Soccer Tournament, a winner-takes-all tournament in Cary, North Carolina from June 1-4 with 32 teams competing for a $1million prize.

The Dragons confirmed their participation earlier this month, joining a field that already includes former Fulham and Tottenham midfielder Clint Dempsey’s Team Dempsey, Hashtag United, Liga MX side Club Nexaca and US Women, made up of former United States internationals.

‘Deadpool’ actor Reynolds and ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’ creator McElhenney announced their intention to buy Wrexham in September 2020 and completed a deal for Wales’ oldest club the following February.

The pair will play alongside Wrexham player-coach David Jones in The Soccer Tournament

Since then, heavy investment has turned the club into National League promotion contenders and they made headlines in late January when they came close to knocking Championship side Sheffield United out of the FA Cup, instead getting a replay at Bramall Lane which they lost 3-1 after late goals.

The fly-on-the-wall ‘Welcome To Wrexham’ documentary on FX has given the club a global profile, and participating in TST is seen as an opportunity to continue that.

TST comes from TNT Enterprises and follows in the footsteps of its elder sibling The Basketball Tournament, which was founded in 2014 and also offers a $1million prize.

As of 2022, that tournament had expanded to 64 teams with a global TV distribution deal with ESPN.

‘I came from a pickup soccer culture, from a culture of taking people on,’ Dempsey told ESPN in October.

‘This is something that promotes that and hopefully opens the door for some people to take their game to the next level and chase their dreams.’

NBA star Chris Paul is also part of the league’s ownership group.

McElhenney and Reynolds have brought attention to the club with a documentary series

Inspired by the ‘Elam Ending’ used in TBT, where the clock is shut off in the fourth quarter and a target score must be hit to win, a similar rule will take effect in North Carolina.

Each match will end with ‘target score time,’ where the winning team’s total at the end of regulation plus one will have to be hit (for either team) to end the contest.

TST has also announced Conrad & Beasley United – featuring former USMNT stars Jimmy Conrad and DaMarcus Beasley – as one of this summer’s teams, as well as Nati SC, a team of former FC Cincinnati players.

Should Wrexham claim the big prize, the club has pledged to spend half of the money on community projects.