Wrexham: Ryan Reynolds and Natalie Portman in talks for blockbuster football match | OneFootball

Actor and Angel City co-owner Natalie Portman has revealed she’s ‘in talks’ with Ryan Reynolds to set up a ‘friendly’ match between her National Women’s Soccer League team and Wrexham AFC Women.

Portman founded the Californian women’s football team back in 2020, alongside venture capitalists Kara Nortman and Alexis Ohanian, and entrepreneur Julie Uhrman.

Since then, a slew of other famous faces such as Eva Longoria, Serena Williams, and former USWNT star Abby Wambach have also claimed shares in the Los Angeles-based football team.

In their inaugural NWSL season, Angel City F.C. finished in 8th place and unfortunately missed out on qualifying for the playoffs.

However, in wake of their debut season, a new HBO docuseries titled Angel City is giving fans an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how the majority female-owned club was built from the ground up.

The series is out in the US on Tuesday, 16 May and is set to chronicle Portman’s tears, triumphs and sheer determination to lift her new women’s team off of the ground.

Natalie Portman vs Ryan Reynolds: who dares wins?

Speaking to ET at the premiere of Angel City, Portman revealed that she has big plans for Angel City and is even thinking about setting up a “friendly” match between Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s Wrexham Women.

She said: “I’ve been lucky enough to talk [to Reynolds] about his journey, and he’s so inspirational for what he’s done with Wrexham, and they have a women’s team also.

“So, we have talked about kind of having some friendly matches at some point,” Portman added.

At this moment in time, the friendly match is just speculation, so it’s not known whether the potential game would take place on US soil or in Wales.

Regarding the forthcoming docuseries, Portman said that she wants other female-owned clubs to be able to learn from the mistakes she’s made.

“We want to share out playbook so that other people can learn from what we did well and what mistakes we made and have a foot forward when they do their own endeavours and build teams,” she said.

“We’re seeing it already being replicated in other cities,” she added. “So, that’s been really exciting to see.”

Wrexham AFC Women are rising in the ranks

While the rise of Angel City is a hot topic in the US, Wrexham Women have been making headlines back here in the UK.

Last month, the team managed to snag promotion to the Adran Premier, the highest tier of women’s football in Wales.

Wrexham midfielder Rebecca Pritchard scored the only goal in their final game against Briton Ferry and thus secured the team promotion next season.

Following the dramatic win, McElhenney took to Twitter to write: “ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. CONGRATULATIONS @WrexhamAFCWomen !!!!!!!”

In celebration, all Wrexham Women players were invited on a bus parade of the City.

They were joined by Reynolds and McElhenney as well as Wrexham’s Men’s team, who were celebrating their promotion from the National League into the English Football League after a 15-year absence.