A WREXHAM-based football club has garnered worldwide recognition after its recent interactions with Wrexham AFC co-owner Ryan Reynolds.

Last month, the Leader reported on the club receiving a £1,600 donation from the Deadpool actor to help buy new kits.

As well as that, Reynolds also sent a touching video message to one of the club's young players - Keegen Barton - who had lost his father. He also later invited the youngster to Wrexham's FA Cup match v Sheffield United as his special guest.

That level of publicity for the club has seen it attract interest from across the globe with new Twitter followers coming in from the likes of Canada, Australia, USA and even Malaysia.

And that has led to the club's new shirts being bought worldwide too.

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Club chairman Andrew Ruscoe said: "The shirt sales have been phenomenal, we have sold 46 shirts worldwide, which is incredible for a club like FC United of Wrexham.

"The shirts are amazing and we can't wait to see our Under 12's, women's and men's teams playing in them.

"The interaction with Ryan Reynolds has been amazing as it's helped raise the profile of FC United of Wrexham across the world as we ended up on Sky News, BBC Television, ITV, Metro, Yahoo and MSN news feeds.

"We can't thank Ryan enough for this. We just hope now we can grow a fan base so that we can fulfil our 20 year Vision for the football club which is to hopefully end up at tier 1 of Welsh football, which in turn would help us to get our own fully funded academy, create jobs and give the community a Wrexham-based named team in the Welsh Premier League.

"Who knows it may give us an opportunity to one day compete against clubs like TNS for a Uefa Champions League spot. But dreams are dreams for now, we have to thank Ryan for his support."

The Leader:

PIC: FC United of Wrexham's new goalkeeper kit, which Ryan Reynolds' donation helped purchase.

FC United of Wrexham itself was formed in 2020 by Andrew along with Morgan Churchill, Tom Winsper and the late Michael 'Skippy' Hughes who sadly died in 2021.

Formed as a futsal club, it grew into much more than that and now has a men's team competing in the North East Wales Football League Championship, as well as a women's team and youth teams.

Andrew added: "Our football vision is in its second year of a 20-year plan of one day reaching the JD Cymru Premier so that we can gain access to things like the £130,000 a year funds to run a welsh youth academy so that we can give back to the youngsters within Wrexham.

"Our futsal vision is in its second year of a seven [year] plan of reaching the UEFA futsal champions league which we believe our under 12's can achieve as long as we can keep them motivated and focused on the long-term goal.

"Both visions are intended to help young people so that they stay away from things like anti-social behaviour, unhealthy lifestyles and develop life skills.

"Currently our men have gone through a transition because they have been on the end of some heavy defeats before I agreed to take the manager role but they are progressing. So we hope to get our highest position by coming fourth from bottom this season by keeping things realistic.

"We hope we can continue to grow our presence, and who knows, we may get a good backer who might want to take our vision on and help us achieve things we can only dream of."

The Leader:

PIC: Chairman Andrew Ruscoe with some of FC United of Wrexham's young stars.

Talking about the club's highlights to date - aside from the Ryan Reynolds interactions - Andrew said: "Since we have started the club we have experienced many magical moments in our short history.

"The club has won the Under 12's North West England Futsal competition in 2022, we have helped players progress into the semi-professional realms such as Bruno Miguel, George Yarwood who joined Prestatyn Town last season and Miroslav Ivanov who left us on deadline day to join Bala Town.

"We have helped many youth players progress into Manchester City, Wrexham FC, Crewe Alexandra and many Welsh Football Academy set ups like Bala Town, we reached the FAW Futsal finals in 2021 and we gained our very own home ground at Bronwen Green which is awaiting approval for promotion on ground criteria."

"There are so many talented Wrexham based players who are craving an opportunity to be part of an academy set up and who would love an opportunity of regular academy football if we got a club like ourselves into the top flight of Welsh football.

"We would also look to implement a quota that the 1st team has to field at least three home grown talented players so that local lads get the right opportunities if we achieved this platform. But we can only dream for now."