Rob and Ryan aren't hurting The Beautiful Game; they are helping it

Rob and Ryan aren't hurting The Beautiful Game; they are helping it

 In case you have been living under a rock for the last year or so, Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney own a professional football team in Wales. Well. Soccer, but yeah, they own a team in the fifth tier of English Football. As a result of their name, their social clout, and the fantastic quality of their documentary series, the club's public eye has widened and deepened to a level unheard of for the club, let alone that area of the world and the beautiful game. 

With the new eyes on the sport, the monumental coverage of Wrexham matches on ESPN Plus - the domestic subscription service for many leagues, competitions, and sports -- Many have begun to see themselves as more than just casual viewers but rather edging closer to defining themselves as "fans" or in the soccer terms, "supporters" 

There's more than one way to finish a race

When you run any type of race, when you start any kind of project, or when you do anything in life there is likely a chance that there is more than one way to do that. With soccer, this is also true. Many of the long-timers have seen the eyes being attracted to Wrexham, seeing many people who would be considered "casual" or "sometimers" begin the "follow" (tired of the quotes yet) the Welsh fifth division side. 

While some will have football-like reasons, many cite the documentary, Rob, and Ryan as the reasons behind their new love for the beautiful game.

And that's okay.

The beauty of this sport is the fact we all have different paths of how we got here. Mine doesn't begin alone - between my burning "little brother" desire and the unhealthy addiction to the computer game Football Manager, I went from someone who was more in line with this scene from Sports Night than someone who would ever consider themselves a fan of soccer

The Journey 

When we look around at the world of soccer, how many in this country, the United States, would be people who found out about the sport from their grandfather or father, etc versus someone who found interest when they learned that FIFA was based on a sport you could watch on TV and wasn't created in a world that had wands and people flying around on broomsticks? 

When we look at what Rob and Ryan are doing, they aren't buying success simply to get a return on their investment. Despite, clearly, having bigger pockets than many clubs at that level, they are telling a story about a city that has not been far from many cities in this country. Hard-working people, strong people, passionate people, who at the end of the day want to spend the money they earn to support something that represents them. 

It doesn't matter how you got here!

To quote The Rock: "It doesn't matter how you got here! This sport is for everyone. Whether you are a World Cup watcher, a documentary viewer turned "googling where Wales is" to the long-timers. There is no gate, nor should there be one. There shouldn't be a mandate to support teams local to you or leagues local to you because most if not all who support their truly local teams didn't get there because they got told to or shoved there, but because they drank from the same water new supporters are. 

You can teach a man to fish and feed him for a day but you can't force a man to catch your specific type of fish if their interests aren't in the bass, some like other kinds and for the sport to continue to grow, as cliche as it is, we need a community that doesn't care how you got here but cares more about the fact that they are here and want to keep them here for as long as they can.