Famous Welsh club returns to the English Football League after 15-year exile, sparking jubilant celebrations

Ryan Reynolds held his head in his hands. Rob McElhenney leaned forward, took a deep breath and was soon wiping tears from his eyes.

Below the Hollywood actors, thousands of Wrexham fans flooded onto the field at the Racecourse Ground, setting off red flares and waving Wales flags.

A previously down-on-its-luck Welsh soccer club thrust into the global spotlight because of its A-list owners was celebrating last week after Wrexham secured promotion to the fourth tier of the English game.

Reynolds and McElhenney, along with actor friend Paul Rudd, were among a crowd of more than 10,000 at the Racecourse in north Wales to see Wrexham clinch the National League title with a 3-1 win over Boreham Wood.

Reynolds and McElhenney embraced in the directors' box when the full-time whistle sounded and, before long, were holding up a flag with the words: "Wrexham champions 2022-23."

They seemingly have become soccer fanatics since completing their out-of-nowhere purchase of the club for $2.5 million in 2021. An offshoot of the takeover was the making of a fly-on-the-wall documentary — entitled Welcome to Wrexham — that has charted the journey of the team as the actors learn the ropes of sports club ownership.

The second season of the show will have a happy ending, with Wrexham heading back into the English Football League — three divisions below the Premier League — for the first time in 15 years.

"One thing that is running through my head over and over again," Reynolds said, looking around at Wrexham's jubilant players and fans, "is that people said at the beginning, 'Why Wrexham, why Wrexham?' This is exactly why Wrexham."

At the final whistle Wrexham was four points clear of second-placed Notts County, winning the sole automatic promotion spot to League Two. After being greeted by Reynolds and McElhenney, Wrexham's players lifted the league trophy in the middle of the field to the sound of Queen's We are the Champions, and club anthem Wrexham is the Name.

Reynolds is best known for starring in the "Deadpool" movies, while McElhenney is the creator of TV shows It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Mythic Quest. One of their stated aims when partnering to buy Wrexham from its success-starved fans was to lead the 158-year-old team — the world's third-oldest professional club — to the Premier League and the journey is well underway.

It is Wrexham's first league title at any level since the old Division Three — then the third tier in the English game — in 1977, and the team has done it in style, collecting a record number of points and winning 34 out of 46 games.