海角大神

Kendra Nordin Beato: Hear that? Get excited. The Monitor had a reporter in that stadium.

[music]

Welcome to 鈥淲hy We Wrote This.鈥� I鈥檓 this week鈥檚 guest host, Kendra Nordin Beato. Today we鈥檙e going to dive into the saga of a football club in Wrexham, Wales, the subject of a story by today鈥檚 guest, writer Stephen Humphries, and also the focus of 鈥淲elcome to Wrexham,鈥� an FX television series that launched its second season this week.

First, our American listeners might appreciate a primer on just exactly where this Welsh football club fits into the galaxy that is English soccer. You may have heard about Arsenal or Manchester United, both part of the Premier League, the top 20 teams in men鈥檚 professional soccer. But think of it like a pyramid.

The total number of teams across the entire English football system is something like 7,000 clubs, [all] ever trying to reach the level above. Just below the Premier League sits three levels of the English Football League, made up of 72 teams. Wrexham had spent a frustrating 14 seasons trying to level up into the football league until last year,聽 when two American actors help bring about a Hollywood ending that might not be an ending at all.

OK, now let鈥檚 hit pause.

Stephen, why did the Monitor decide to write about a sleepy Welsh town and its lackluster football club back in May?

Stephen Humphries: Well, we were having a conversation among the editors and myself about how do we cover the last, final season of [the Apple TV series] 鈥淭ed Lasso.鈥澛燗nd as a reminder, "Ted Lasso" is the hit comedy about an American college football coach who inexplicably becomes a coach of a top tier British football team, or as we call it here, soccer.

Nordin Beato: Right, and that鈥檚 when I weighed in to say the soccer fans in my house who are watching "Welcome to Wrexham," a documentary produced by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who had bought its football club and were trying to save and revive it. I mean, it was like a real life version of 鈥淭ed Lasso,鈥� wasn鈥檛 it?

Humphries: Absolutely. And there鈥檝e been a lot of comparisons, justly. So, because you have these two very big name Hollywood stars who swoop into this tiny town in North Wales, Wrexham, and buy the football club, and these are two guys who know very little to absolutely nothing about British football.

They come in and they produce a documentary about how they invest in this struggling team, and it turned into a big hit. And, suddenly, this documentary becomes popular all over the world, and it starts to have a transformative effect on the town itself. There are tourists coming from all over: they鈥檙e coming from mostly North America, but also places like Australia and Iceland and China, and people all want to be kind of a part of this phenomenon.

Nordin Beato: Wow! But they鈥檙e obviously not all soccer fans, right? So, in many ways, this story isn鈥檛 about a football club. It鈥檚 a story about a town and its identity and its long suffering fans. What did you observe when you finally got to Wrexham?

Humphries: It鈥檚 a working-class town. The main industries there have always been coal mining and steel manufacture. But those industries really died at the late end of the 20th century. And ever since then, the town has struggled.听It鈥檚 lost a lot of population. People have moved to the larger nearby town, Chester, which is kind of a rival town in football as well as economically. Even through all that, there鈥檚 always been this football fandom. And that goes back to, I think, 1864.

And for people in the town... Going to the football games was the main form of recreation for decades. It used to be that the games would regularly get 15,000 attendees. That dwindled down to about 4,000.听But those 4,000 fans, I mean, talk about a hard-core remnant. In 2011, 2,000 of these faithful fans teamed together and they raised a staggering amount of money within 24 hours to be able to buy that football team. And it was that fandom and that dedication and that passion that eventually drew the attention of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

Nordin Beato: One of the reasons this is such a great story for the Monitor, and probably because, for the similar reasons for why "Ted Lasso" resonated with so many viewers, is that at its core, It鈥檚 a story about hope and joy told through a sports team.

Humphries: Yeah, there is this sense of hope and joy, and you feel it when you go into the town. It鈥檚 the one story I鈥檝e had where absolutely everyone asked for an interview was happy to talk, because that鈥檚 how the Welsh are. In fact, the only person to turn me down for an interview was Ryan Reynolds.

Nordin Beato: Oh, whoops! [Laughs.]

Humphries: Understandably so. He was being pulled in so many directions after the game, but I did get a great interview with Rob McElhenney. But there is that joy for this team that goes to the town, and when you visit, There鈥檚 a pub that literally touches the stadium called The Turf.听And you go in there and you hear people singing. And there is a song called 鈥淲elcome to Wrexham鈥� that is the sort of unofficial anthem of the town. And it was written by a part time hobby punk band called the Declan Swans. And the song, 鈥淚t鈥檚 Always Sunny in Wrexham,鈥� has lyrics that go:聽

Nordin Beato: Oh, that鈥檚 terrific. So the lyrics are actually about Ryan Reynolds as the superhero Deadpool and Rob McElhenney starring in 鈥淚t鈥檚 Always Sunny in Philadelphia.鈥澛營t鈥檚 almost like the town has reached out and embraced them as insiders into their own town spirit.

Humphries: Everyone in that town knows that song. You鈥檒l walk past pubs, you go to the stadium and people just spontaneously start singing it. And, you know, they鈥檙e so excited about what鈥檚 happened. But what has happened is that that joy has just been amplified. It was always there, and now they鈥檝e been having this great moment with the series and the economic effect it鈥檚 had, and the effect it鈥檚 had on the morale of people in the town.

Nordin Beato:聽And you were there in a couple of days leading up to the match that you wrote about for the Monitor. Is that right?

Humphries:聽I did, and got to walk around and interview some of the locals.听And, all the pubs are full, all the restaurants are full, the hotels are full. I saw lots of Americans. I met a woman called Jan from New York. She鈥檇 flown in just for the game. She鈥檇 never watched football before that, but she watched the TV series. And she became an ardent fan. You know, she wanted to be part聽 of this phenomenon. So there was this buzz and this electricity in the town for what has been called the biggest game in that league鈥檚 entire history.听And it was a must win game for the club.

Nordin Beato:聽So the anticipation was huge. The TV series had delivered this moment. You had American viewers, you had the press there, you had people from all over England and Wales showing up to watch this. What did it feel like walking into the stadium as a spectator? What did the crowd feel like?

Humphries: I mean, if you think it鈥檚 hard to get tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, this was triply so. This was the ticket that everyone wanted. This was a must win match against the arch rival team, Notts County, and what had happened was that... In the previous game, Wrexham had a shocking loss.

It was a game that they should have won, that would have kept them at the top of the table, and now their arch-rivals who are also vying for promotion come in, and there鈥檚 a lot of pressure on Wrexham at this point, because they鈥檇 had this investment from the two Hollywood actors the previous season, and they鈥檇 failed to get promoted.

So they needed to win this game. The buzz and the electricity and the tension. I mean, people were.... They鈥檙e telling me that they couldn鈥檛 sleep the night before.

Nordin Beato:聽As a culture writer, how often does this happen to you? That you can feel like you are about to catch a wave? And how often does that happen in your reporting that you feel like you鈥檙e about to capture a crescendo as you鈥檙e reporting it?

Humphries:聽I don鈥檛 think I鈥檝e ever had that experience, really. I have been to ... rock concerts to report on them and things like that and Broadway shows and such, but never an occasion like this where you could tell that everything felt like it was on the line for this town. And for these fans, they鈥檇 been waiting 15 years for a chance of promotion [to a new tier].

Wrexham was the 鈥渂ad news bears鈥� of football, and the game starts. And right away, Notts County, the rival team, scores a goal.

And there was this sort of collective groan in the stadium. And everyone thought, it鈥檚 going to be like the last game. They鈥檙e going to, they鈥檙e going to lose this game. But then, Wrexham comes back, and they score two goals.

So, this game鈥檚 a humdinger, and when Wrexham鈥檚 ahead, the other team comes back, and they score again, and the score is tied, and it goes into overtime, and there鈥檚 still no score, and so it goes down to a penalty shootout. Now, that鈥檚 sort of like, that鈥檚 in soccer.

Nordin Beato:聽The worst.

Humphries:聽The worst and the best, because it comes down to which team is gonna walk away because they score more penalty goals than the other team.

So, Wrexham has a goalkeeper who鈥檚 kind of a big name. His name is Ben Foster. He used to be the goalkeeper for Manchester United, and he鈥檇 retired, but came out of retirement because Wrexham invited him, and he said it took him, you know, less than five minutes to say yes.

He鈥檇 lost the sort of the buzz and the excitement of playing football. That鈥檚 why he retired, and he was getting up there in years. And he said that coming to play for Wrexham, which was the first team he ever played on when he was very young, gave him that buzz again. He鈥檚 standing in the goal, and it comes down to this one final kick. He has to save it.

Well, the team lose the game and they potentially lose the season, right? Ben Foster, the goalie, told me afterward that he鈥檇 studied data about this kicker and that this kicker tended to strike for the left side of the goal. But the goalkeeper had this intuition that he should actually dive to the right, and he did it and saved. The goal in dramatic fashion. It was a spectacular save. And the place erupts. It鈥檚 absolute bedlam. I鈥檝e never experienced anything like it.

Nordin Beato:聽Did you cry? I think I would have cried.听

Humphries:聽No, but I think a lot of other people did. I met a football fan who had been attending games for over 70 years and he said it was one of the greatest games he鈥檇 ever seen. It really was a true classic game. Everyone talked about it as being a classic game that will be one for the ages.听

Nordin Beato:聽That鈥檚 something that the Wrexham fans can probably come back to, because the oldest narrative in sports is the long suffering franchise. How do you think this glow is going to sustain them in the weeks and months to come, no matter what happens?

Humphries:聽The league that they鈥檙e now playing in is a much tougher league. And they鈥檝e had a really rocky start to the season. Wrexham鈥檚 star player, Paul Mullen, got injured when he came over to the States during the summer to play some exhibition games, and he鈥檚 still not back.

And Ben Foster, the great hero goalkeeper for Wrexham, suddenly became leakier than a sieve. He was letting in so many goals that he decided to retire for good just a couple of weeks ago. So they鈥檙e sort of in the middle tier of the league at the moment. They have a lot of time. They could come back.

But, I think, even if they don鈥檛 have a great season, that doesn鈥檛 matter because there is that glow, and it鈥檚 bigger than just the football. It鈥檚 the whole phenomenon of what has happened to that town.

And the series is really about the town. It鈥檚 not about the two Hollywood celebrities. And as Rob McElhenney said to me, that was what they wanted from the start. They said that we didn鈥檛 want it to be about us. We wanted it to be about the town. And that鈥檚 what鈥檚 resonating with people. They鈥檙e seeing how people stick together, and what a great community looks like.

Nordin Beato:聽Thanks for listening. Find our show notes with links to the story discussed here and other stories by Stephen at CSMonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. This episode was hosted by me, Kendra Nordin Beato, and edited and produced by Mackenzie Farkus, Clay Collins, and Jingnan Peng.听Our sound engineers were Jeff Turton and Alyssa Britton. Original music is by Noel Flatt. Produced by the 海角大神 Science Monitor. Copyright 2023.