When the Hollywood duo of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchased Wrexham AFC in 2021, they dreamed of turning the historic football club into a Welsh dynasty. Only a few years into the journey, Deadpool and his Always Sunny buddy have positioned the club with consecutive promotions leaving them only one step away from the Premier League….. and worldwide dominance.
Okay, okay. There MIGHT be a few football clubs in Wales that have something to say about it. So let’s check them out, shall we? Then we can chat about how Mr. Reynolds will figure out a way to sit at the pinnacle of football like just about every other industry the superstar has dabbled in.
Liverpool, Man U Lead Walsh Supports Data From 2017
https://gty.im/1862603390
While you would expect a club flying the Welsh flag to be the most popular in Wales, you would be incorrect. WalesOnline reported the most popular club in the country according to numbers based on Facebook followers of the club’s page was Liverpool. The Reds’ official account featured 32.5 million followers in 2017. At that point, less than 1% of the Facebook supporters were accounts based in Wales. For my math nerds friends – the total was 125,000 fans or 0.0038% of supporters.
In 2024, the Liverpool account has surged to 48 million supporters. If the same percentage has held over the last five-plus years, the Welsh supporters’ figure would sit around the 240,000 fans mark at a slightly inflated 0.005% number for the 19-time English Football champions.
Manchester United was only slightly behind Liverpool with 95,000 fans at the time in 2017 which was good for 1% of the fan base at the time. Manchester United has 83 million followers on Meta’s Facebook website. Utilizing the same math above, a 1% total of Welsh fans would put that total at a staggering 830,000 Welsh fans. So, if my very unscientific math tracks, Manchester United would be the most popular team in Wales in 2024.
Please don’t @ me, Liverpool fans.
Also Read: Euro 2024 Top 5 Contenders: Who Will Triumph?
Wrexham AFC Oozes Welsh Pride
https://gty.im/1487138164
If you have watched any of the FX docuseries, Welcome to Wrexham, it quickly becomes evident the level of pride that Wrexham supporters hold for the 3rd oldest organized football club in the world. Wrexham AFC has a long road to climb on Facebook to reach even half a million followers on Meta/Facebook. Currently, the National League club sits at 354K followers on the website. That number would likely explode if Wrexham can earn a third straight promotion this season.
Unfortunately, I was unable to discover the actual number of Welsh fans supporting that page for Wrexham AFC. With the mainstream noise that the historic club has made over the years, I do not feel like it is a big stretch to assume a majority of non-Cardiff City and Swansea City fans to align with Wrexham. Cardiff City sports 566K Facebook followers, while Swansea City has broken a million followers (1.3M). Those two clubs represent approximately 1.9M of the 3.1M residents in Wales from the 2021 Census.
All of that boring math (to some) is simply to state that Wrexham AFC has the potential to acquire 500,000 more fans in Wales alone with continued success. If Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney get the chance to showcase Wrexham AFC to the entire world in the Premier League, The Red Dragons might just become the most popular football club in the United Kingdom.
About The Author
Christopher Babos is a genuine sports & entertainment journalist with diverse credentials in writing, broadcasting, and digital media. He can be located on X for real-time takes (@CBabosWrites). With various roles in the sports industry over two decades, Chris can speak with authority on the topics he covers. Additional insightful sports articles are located here.
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