Champions League at the Racecourse?! Inside Wrexham’s huge ambitions for the women’s team and how ‘very normal’ Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have boosted a European dream

Things have certainly changed for Owen since Reynolds and McElhenney’s investment. After starting off as a volunteer coach over a decade ago, she has worked a number of roles in the organisation and is proud to say that the women’s department had been progressing nicely even before the Hollywood intervention, with her helping the club build “a foundation of promoting women in sport” through visits to schools and summer camps before starting the women’s and girls’ sections. There are players in the first team today that were in that first Under-12s team, even.

Reynolds and McElhenney’s support has helped take this to another level, though. “The first conversation I had was with Humphrey [Ker, executive director],” Owen remembers. “It was great to sit down and have a conversation with him initially about the investment that they wanted to put in and the support and backing that they wanted to give us - and by backing, I don't just mean financial. I mean in terms of exposure and putting that spotlight on us. That was evident from the beginning.

“Credit where credit's due, they've more than done that and they continue to do that. They've been very, very supportive of what we're doing. They are putting that spotlight on us, whether that's through the documentary, whether that's social media posts, there's lots of that and they really want to involve themselves. They don't stand off. They let us get on with our jobs, don't get me wrong, but in terms of wanting to know the players, wanting to know them as people, wanting to know us as staff, we can't ask for much more from them, we really can't. They are fantastic, both of them.”

It's an attitude that has resonated across the club, as shown by the numbers of fans that have come out to support the women’s team – most notably in that game at the Racecourse that McElhenney referenced. It’s also helped the side to enjoy real success, with them winning promotion to the top-flight in Wales last summer, at the same time the men made the jump up to League Two.

“Resources have been quite a big thing and I'm sure that will continue to increase and improve as we move along, but being able to have more specialised staff as well,” Owen explains. “We've brought in strength and conditioning staff and we've brought in performance analysis staff, we've got goalkeeper-specific coaching. That's been a big change for us and a big addition, addressing those areas with people who are specialists has been fantastic. I think that's genuinely allowed us to kick on from where we were last year, even.

“Obviously, going semi-professional has added a big push really and a big drive for us,” she adds, with Wrexham the first of three clubs to do so ahead of the 2023-24 season, along with long-time Welsh giants Cardiff City and Swansea City. “That's in the sense of paying the players, which I think is important, and the increased level of contact time that we have with them. It's still not full-time, it's still not maybe where we aspire to be in terms of that, but it's very different from where we were even just a year or two years ago. I'd say that's allowed us to really push on and kick on.”

Naturally, dealing with Hollywood actors while overseeing a women’s team that has long possessed an amateur status is a little surreal for Owen. “It’s a bit weird, I’ve got to say,” she laughs. “I've had some conversations with them and they're brilliant. They're absolutely brilliant.

"They've really immersed themselves in the football club and that's across the whole football club, not just the men's team. They've been really supportive of what we're doing and they really do want to propel us. That could be financial, it could be exposure, publicity-wise, they're very good at that. They're very good at putting the spotlight on us. But they do it because they believe in what we're doing. They want to make us successful in whatever part that they can play, just as much as they do with the men's team.

“They're both fantastic people, great to talk to you. they're very normal. It's quite a strange thing to say, I guess, because of the stature that they have and the things that they're involved in, but when you talk to them, they're just very, very normal people who are very excited to actually be here, which is brilliant. I can't fault them.”

Reynolds and McElhenney’s desire to do more for the women’s team is evident in series three of 'Welcome to Wrexham', which landed on FX and Disney+ in May, and follows the fortunes of the side on their return to Wales’ top-flight. In that first campaign back at the highest level, the Red Dragons showed that they are “not a million miles off” the likes of Cardiff and Swansea, finishing third behind only those two at the end of the year.

There is still a gap to bridge, as evidenced by the eight points between themselves and the Swans and the 17 adrift they were of title-winning Cardiff, but Owen believes they are already “very close” after just one season at this level. “It's important for us to, firstly, go in there and compete with those teams and, secondly, overcome them, which is not an easy feat by any stretch,” she says. “That's certainly where we want to be.”

A promising return to Wales’ top league has been the latest step forward for this Wrexham team in a journey that has featured many highlights. Owen jumps to mention the bus tour, following the promotion of both senior sides last year, “an integrated celebration” that once again highlighted the value of the women’s team in the club. “We were told we'll be on the bus for about an hour-and-a-half, once we've gone round, we'll be back, it won't be long, and I think it was three or four hours later, we were still on the bus because of how many people were out there! That was something else,” she recalls.

That dramatic 2-1 win over Connah’s Quay at the Racecourse which McElhenney loved is another standout. “That was a very, very special moment, in front of 9,500 people. That's a crazy amount of people to come and watch a women's domestic game in Wales, particularly at tier two that we were playing at the time,” Owen says. “Those two up to now have probably been real pinch me moments.”

There is a lot of work behind the scenes going on to ensure there are more of these memorable occasions, too. The youth set-up below the first team continues to grow, with it now starting at U8s level. “We've got a really good pathway in place at the moment for young girls that want to be able to make that journey into our senior team,” Owen says, with some having already walked that path.

That’ll do Wrexham the world of good for the future as they strive to achieve some huge goals. Having ticked a box by returning to the top flight, the Red Dragons are now focused on competing with the big teams for trophies, but their eventual goals are even bigger. Thirty years since the men’s team’s eighth and final appearance in the prestigious UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup competition, Owen is firm in what the women want to do: “We want to be the team that brings European football back to Wrexham.”

Bridging the gap to Cardiff and Swansea is key, as it is the winner of the Adran Premier that secures a place in the first qualifying round of the Women’s Champions League, but Wrexham’s progress to date and the support from above makes getting there a genuinely achievable goal that Owen and the staff are working towards.

“The other thing is that no team that represents Wales has progressed out of the qualifying stages of the Champions League - we also want to be doing that,” Owen adds. “We want to be that team that is the first one to get out of those stages and progress further on. There's still lots of more short-term ambitions, which are really big ones, but regardless of where we end up playing and what level we end up playing, we do want to be playing at the highest level that we possibly can. The men's team have got their ambition to reach the Premier League and we want to be a force to be reckoned with as well.”

A European dream might be a bit too big for the men’s side at the moment, but that the women could bring Champions League football to the Racecourse sooner rather than later is a show of the ambition of the whole club. They’re certainly heading in the right direction.