Rob McElhenney bought a Welsh soccer team. FX’s ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ tells the story — and Philly plays a role

You can take the boy out of Philadelphia, make him a world-famous actor with two hit TV shows. You can even have him buy the world’s oldest soccer club — in Wales, no less — with fellow world-famous actor Ryan Reynolds. But you’ll never take the Philly out of the boy.

In February last year, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Rob McElhenney and Reynolds completed their reported $2.5 million purchase of Wrexham AFC. Their nascent days as team owner is featured in a new FX documentary series, Welcome to Wrexham, premiering 10 p.m. Wednesday on FX, and streaming the next day on Hulu.

While McElhenney buying the team has Ted Lasso vibes, there is one connection that makes the move make sense: the Eagles.

“I’m from Philadelphia, and I’ve always been a sports fanatic. I couldn’t play anything, but I always loved watching it. My whole family loved the Eagles,” McElhenney says in the first episode. “It was just something that was a part of my life from the time I can remember. The team becomes an extension of the city. Even as a kid, I just remember that gave me something to identify with.”

McElhenney grew up at Moyamensing and Dickinson — and in the show, they visit his childhood home. He explains the aura of Philadelphians, saying that Philly folks “are people who work really hard for everything that they have.”

Wrexham and Philly, he says, aren’t so different, even if they’re an ocean apart.

“It’s a working-class town. It’s a blue-collar town,” he says. “It’s a town that has had its ups and downs, and they haven’t had all the opportunities that a lot of other people have had. I feel like I know those people, and I grew up with those people. I am one of those people.”

He wants to help bring to Wrexham fans the feeling he had when the Birds won the Super Bowl in 2018. That, he says in the show, was “one of the greatest days of my life” that was “up there with the birth of my children and my wedding day.”

“Not because of what happened on the field, but because of what it meant to an entire community of people, and to my relationships with my friends and my family members, and the entire city of Philadelphia,” he says. “I really believe that we can build something like that, and I want to be there for that.”

As the series shows, it’s not as easy as just throwing a little star power at the team. There are setbacks on the field, off the field — even with the field. But, as McElhenney recently told the BBC, he and Reynolds are in it for the long haul.

“At the beginning we thought let’s see how long we can last and try and improve this club year after year after year, and then we’ll see,” McElhenney said. “Now in the last year and a half, we’ve realized we’re in this for the rest of our lives.”

Welcome to Wrexham premieres 10 p.m. Wednesday on FX. It will be available to stream via Hulu the following day.