Three months after launch FIFA 23 Fans note that the comment includes some amusing Easter eggs, courtesy of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny, celebrity owners of Wrexham AFC.
Wrexham can be the third oldest professional football team in the world, but in real life they compete in the National League of English football, which is five ranks away from the leaders in the Premier League.
Reynolds’ and McElhenney acquired Wrexham in February 2021, and that made club fodder for the 2022 docuseries Welcome to Wrexhamwhich premiered on FX in August. FIFA 22 (the game 2021) including Wrexham AFC in his “Rest of World” menagerie as a nod to pop culture’s greater interest in the smaller side. Typically, EA Sports’ flagship football franchise does not include non-league (i.e. not fully professional) clubs.
FIFA 23 brought back the dragons – apparently along with some comments from Reynolds and McElhenny. Over the holidays, fans noted that comparing Wrexham to Liverpool (any mode, any location) Ryan & Rob are in the dressing room with a slamming, shadow-throwing intro. Have a look:
We can only assume no one noticed this because a) no one cared to score against Merseyside’s 5-star Reds (84-82-85) against 1-star Welsh Wrexham (65 attack, 62 midfield, 62 defense). Or, if they did, they buttoned through Derek Rae and Stewart Robson’s pregame commentary to get on with the ass beating.
Someone else noted over the weekend that when Wrexham plays Stockport County – a Wrexham rival who’s been promoted to EFL League Two – R&R comes up with this table-setter:
We reached out to EA Sports to ask if fans can expect additional comments from Rob McElhenny and Ryan Reynolds, but we didn’t receive a response this afternoon. Keep going, kids. We doubt they got this chatty couple in the dressing room for just two lines.
