It’s been five years since Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney dropped $2.5 million to purchase a Welsh soccer club in the form of Wrexham A.F.C. before helping the team stage a dramatic turnaround. It’s been a fairly stressful affair for the duo, but it’s safe to assume it’s also been a lucrative one when you consider they’ve once again opted to team up with some other notable names to purchase another squad in Colombia.
It’s a bit hard to imagine either of the two men who teamed up to buy Wrexham really knew what they were signing up for when they opted to take the plunge—a saga that began when the It’s Always Sunny star got a bit too into British soccer during the pandemic before convincing one of the biggest names in Hollywood to join him on what has turned out to be a wild journey.
The team was wallowing in the fifth tier of the English system when they took control in 2020 before sparking the magical rise they’ve chronicled with the documentary series Welcome to Wrexham.
However, the team has been promoted two times since then and is currently tied for second place on the League One table (just two points behind Birmingham, which has a couple of games in hand) with a very real shot at making the leap to the Champions level that would put them one step below the Premier League (although that final destination remains a wildly ambitious goal).
Reynolds and McElhenney have continued to pour millions of dollars into the team in the wake of their initial investment (they’ve loaned it more than $11 million as of last year), and while you may think they might not be scrambling to add more to their plate, that’s apparently not the case.
According to The Athletic, the duo is listed among the members of a consortium that has shelled out $30 million to purchase more than 99% of La Equidad, a soccer team based in Bogota, Colombia that’s been playing in Categoría Primera A (the country’s top league) since 2007.
This is actually the third soccer team Reynolds and McElhenney have some skin in, as they have a well-established relationship with the two men who spearheaded the purchase of La Equidad: real estate investor Al Tylis and former DC United CSO Sam Porter, who previously secured a majority stake in Mexico’s Club Necaxa in 2021.
Those two men operate the holding company involved in a reciprocal purchase of Wrexham shares last year linked to the production of a spiritual success to Welcome to Wrexham focusing on Club Necaxa—which also boasts celebrity co-owners including Odell Beckham Jr, Shawn Marion, Eva Longoria, and Justin Verlander and his wife Kate Upton (the last four of whom are all reportedly involved in the La Equidad acquisition).
While most of those celebs probably won’t be heavily involved in day-to-day operations, it’s becoming increasingly clear soccer teams are one of the hottest investments money can buy.
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