Lots of myth of the happy ending and the American dream and what you will, but Los Angeles is the cruelest of cities, and not just because of the 70,000 homeless people roaming its streets. Sorry, no streets, eight-lane highways, permanently jammed as if they were the AP-7 on a Sunday afternoon at the height of the Maresme after a chain accident. A private detective in the 1940s would say that he takes you to the top of a skyscraper, makes you feel like God, or famous, or has money, or the adulation of your peers for a while, and then drops you into the void to crash into the reality (some actor committed suicide by jumping from the legendary Hollywood sign in Beachwood Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains). It’s the oldest of the stories, Norma Desmond’s on Sunset Boulevard and a bunch of variations on the same theme.
In La La Land, the 2016 musical film that won six Oscars, career aspirations and life itself get in the way of the love story between pianist Seb and actress Mia, and no matter how much they love each other, the end can only be bittersweet. Last year, after losing in dramatic fashion in the semi-finals of the promotion play-offs against Grimsby Town, it seemed that the adventure between Welsh side Wrexham AFC and Hollywood would meet the same fate, that of crashing into the harsh reality of football But sometimes sequels completely change the script, and turn a drama into a dream.
This is the case of Wrexham, one of the oldest clubs in the world – and with one of the first stadiums where international matches were played – which has been languishing for 15 years in the fifth category of English football (a handful of teams Welsh, the best, compete in England). Its luck changed in November 2020, when American actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought it from the partners for two and a half million dollars. Since then in the United States it is as famous as Liverpool or Manchester United, it is visited by tourists from all over the world, and celebrities such as Hugh Jackman, Blake Lively, Paul Rudd (Ant Man) sit in the box office or David Beckham. And the cherry on top was the title this year of the so-called National Conference, with the prize of promotion to fourth.
The team is not just football, it is also Hollywood, pure glamour. The documentary Welcome to Wrexham tells its adventures through characters such as the owner of The Turf pub, on the edge of the stadium, the manager Phil Parkinson (promotion expert, this was his fourth), the goalscorer Paul Mullin (47 goals) and goalkeeper Ben Foster, who kept goal for Manchester United in his prime and came out of retirement to play at number five when Reynolds called him on the phone. In the title decider he secured victory by saving a Notts County penalty in added time. A script worthy of Hollywood?
Not that the owners have handed out a blank cheque, but Wrexham’s players, a global phenomenon, enjoy privileges uncommon in their category. They did the pre-season stage in Alicante, they celebrated Christmas in Dublin, and their prize consists, if they win, of traveling by plane the six hundred kilometers to Eastleigh, Gateshead or Maidstone.
In La La Land, they don’t end up together, no matter how much the viewers cry and they are made for each other. In La La Land , the sequel, Wrexham fans hope Reynolds and McElhenney stick around for life.
