Welcome to Wrexham (Season 2)

Available on Disney+

Football documentaries are seldom enlightening affairs. Granted, they provide a welcome insight for fans into the mindset of elite athletes, but they rarely strike an emotional chord. Take, for example, Amazon’s expertly produced but fundamentally stage managed All or Nothing series which, despite the fanfare that follows their release, fails to leave much of a lasting impression (beyond the memory of Mikel Arteta’s unusual motivational techniques).

Welcome to Wrexham, the tale of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s stranger than fiction takeover of a previously beleaguered non-league side, is an altogether different beast. Beside the peculiarity of its premise, the series has been distinguished by its documentation of the Hollywood actor’s earnest attempts to make an indelible impact on their team’s local community.

Its second season could be forgiven for being exclusively focused on Wrexham’s ultimately successful attempts to secure automatic promotion back to the English Football League, particularly given the fact that their previous campaign ended in play-off heartbreak. Reynolds, McElhenney, and producers Boardwalk Pictures should be commended, therefore, for once again taking time out to shine a spotlight on less glamorous, but no less important, topics such as the club’s efforts to make their stadium more autism friendly, the success of its women’s team, and their continued honouring of the 1934 Gresford coal mine tragedy.

With the series generating a tidy £600k in additional revenue, it would be easy to dismiss Wrexham as being little more than just another case of a well-backed club buying its way to success, but this heartful series reminds us that football’s impact stretches well beyond on-field events.