Inside the Wrexham fever that took over The Soccer Tournament

Inside the Wrexham fever that took over The Soccer Tournament
By Felipe Cardenas and Pablo Maurer
Jun 5, 2023

There was a sea of red in Cary, North Carolina over the weekend. Wrexham kits, T-shirts and Welsh flags littered Wakemed Soccer Park, home of The Soccer Tournament (TST), the inaugural $1 million 7-v-7 football competition. 

The “Wrexham Red Dragons” were the tournament’s biggest draw. Nearly 50 percent of the more than 30,000 tickets sold were to people who identified themselves as fans of Wrexham. Starstruck fans took selfies with Wrexham players, who were treated like the A-listers of an event that also included former U.S. internationals, and players with World Cup and Premier League experience. Their walkouts onto the pitch for their four matches received the loudest reception of the tournament. 

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For the uninitiated, Wrexham AFC are the Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney owned club featured in “Welcome to Wrexham,” the FX documentary series that has made this Welsh team in the lower divisions of the English football league system a cult sensation in the United States. The series, along with Apple TV’s (fictional) Ted Lasso series, has done what very few soccer vehicles have ever done in the United States: permeated the consciousness of the general public.

The power of both properties was on full display in Cary. The proof of that was present in the crowd at Wrexham’s first TST match: a husband in a Richmond jersey (the team that Lasso manages) and wife in a Wrexham top. On the sidelines of a game on an adjacent field, a team manager roamed the technical area sporting Lasso’s signature mustache and visor.

Wrexham fans at the Red Dragons’ opening TST match against Como 1907 in Cary, NC. (Photo: Rooted Creative x TST)

Advisor to the Wrexham board Shaun Harvey was in Cary as well, sitting on the bench with the team during their matches. Wrexham went undefeated in the group stage before their elimination in the round of 16 by a team led by former U.S. internationals Jimmy Conrad and DaMarcus Beasley. The Red Dragons scored a total of 26 goals and conceded seven. 

Harvey has his hands full at the moment, helping plan for the club’s next season in the Football League after 15 grueling years of non-league play. There’s also the matter of the first team’s upcoming U.S. tour, where they will play a collection of young talents from much bigger clubs like Chelsea and Manchester United. 

Harvey made an executive decision before coming to Cary. The “Red Dragons” are affiliated with Wrexham but Harvey and others at the club decided to give them that name — and alter the crest they used at TST — to offer them their own identity.

“We wanted to make sure that we represented the club,” said Harvey, “but we also wanted to make sure that fans here knew it wasn’t going to be a first team. We didn’t want any fans coming here under any false pretenses. We just thought it was more accurate to call ourselves the Wrexham Red Dragons, using the club’s nickname, so it was different.” 

Very few of the Red Dragons were current Wrexham players, and even fewer feature in the series. The team’s roster was mostly a collection of first-team staffers — like David Jones, who acted as a player-coach — former Wrexham players (like Paul Rutherford) and an assortment of lower-league talent. 

There were a couple of recognizable faces, though, and fans sought them out. On Thursday night, a father struggled to hold his baby while taking a selfie with third goalkeeper Mark Howard and former Wrexham player and manager Andrew Morrell. Howard, like a politician working a reception line, intervened after watching the youngster teetering precariously on his father’s arm. 

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“Here, I’ll take the baby,” he said, laughing. 

Morrell coached and played at Wrexham in the mid-aughts and had a distinguished career as a journeyman striker across the Football League. Maybe more than any other player on the Red Dragons roster, Morrell can appreciate the absurdity of the club’s current state of affairs.

“It’s sensational,” Morrell said after one of Wrexham’s matches in Cary. “I was at Wrexham 20 years ago when the club was good and then it had a terrible time. I was the manager when the fans were bringing cash to pay the players. To see them come out the other end, the story’s even better now, and I don’t think there’s a better football club in England to support, or in Wales as well, because of the dream, and the possibilities. It’s hope. It’s brilliant.”

Not every fan knew what they were watching, though. As 21-year-old Red Dragons midfielder Filip Mirkovic worked the crowd, a middle-aged local leaned over the railing and thanked him for coming over from Wales for the tournament. His voice was tinged with emotion. 

It’s about a one-hour flight from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Mirkovic plays his college soccer. He has never even been to Wales, let alone played for Wrexham. The Serbian-born Mirkovic was raised in New York, and was happy to oblige every time he was asked to sign for a photo. 

“I don’t even know if they realize I’m not on the team,” he said while greeting fans. “Some probably do, some don’t.”

Nicolas Cavallo, a defender at nearby Davidson College, scored the winner in Wrexham’s final group stage game against Say Word FC. After signing a young fan’s Wrexham flag, Cavallo, still drenched in sweat from the midday heat, summed up his surreal experience. 

“It’s amazing,” he said. “A lot of these fans don’t know who I am so I’m signing all these autographs, like I’m not from Wrexham at all! But it’s been awesome. The Wrexham culture is no joke. When we step on the field it’s to win. It’s to perform. It’s to give maximum effort. I’m just excited to help out and be a part of it.”

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Mirkovic and Cavallo were recruited by Tim Marchisotto, who was the general manager of Sporting Arizona FC in 2015. At that time, Sporting AZ, a team in America’s developmental United Premier Soccer League, was coached by Aidan Davison, Wrexham’s first-team goalkeeper coach. Davison was part of the Red Dragons’ coaching staff in Cary. 

Davison praised the mentality and work ethic of both Mirkovic and Cavallo. He pegged them as two players who will likely be selected in the next MLS draft. But after getting a taste of the Wrexham culture, the two young Americans are dreaming about professional careers in England. 

“They’ve got enough in the locker,” Davison said when asked if Mirkovic and Cavallo had the quality to play for Wrexham, newly promoted to League Two (England’s fourth division).  

The two university footballers were unknowns, unlike Howard. 

“I love the States,” Howard said as a group of children screamed his name from the metal bleachers. The 36-year-old goalkeeper is pursuing a degree in journalism. He has already launched The Yours, Mine, Away! podcast and didn’t hide the fact that he’s enjoying his newfound stardom. 

“It’s nice. It’s a good little feeling,” he said. “The growth of the club, especially out here, is massive. That’s one of the reasons why, as a current player, I volunteered myself. I wanted to embrace what we’ve got going on now.” 

Howard was open about his appreciation for American sports culture, as well. 

“I love the States,” Howard said. “I don’t think that goalkeepers in England get enough exposure. In America it’s so positive. It’s a totally different sport within football. The press in England, they’re quite negative. If a goalkeeper makes a mistake that’s all that gets highlighted.”

In North Carolina, every Wrexham player welcomed their new role as a club emissary. There wasn’t a photo or autograph request turned down. They were thousands of miles away from the media scrutiny that they face in the United Kingdom. A soccer journalist in America was considered a friendly face to a Wrexham player.

“Get me if you need anything else,” Howard said. “I’m media trained now!”


The biggest player at the tournament, physically at least, was Lee Trundle. Built like a lumberjack, Trundle was impossible to miss as he worked the box for the Red Dragons. He made nearly 100 appearances for Wrexham from 2001-2003 and was an easy choice to captain the Red Dragons during TST.

At 46, Trundle has yet to retire. Most recently he played in the Welsh second division, and he remains a youth coach and ambassador for Swansea City, among the bigger clubs in Wales. Understandably, he’s lost a step since he featured at the Racecourse, Wrexham’s home ground, but he can still entertain. During Wrexham’s second group stage game, against a collection of former U.S. women’s national teamers and college players, Trundle positioned himself for what would’ve been the goal of the tournament — a bicycle kick, executed by a man built like an ox. He couldn’t quite pull it off.

“I was going to try it,” Trundle said after the match. “But it wouldn’t sit right for me. If I get a chance, though, I’ll definitely try one.”

Lee Trundle takes a selfie at TST. (Photo: Pablo Maurer)

Trundle’s presence is undeniably intimidating but he has a soft side, as well. In conversation, he seems genuinely moved by the American experience, and what’s happening with Wrexham as a whole. He laughed when asked what it felt like to be a star in America. 

“I think a lot of that is down to Rob and Ryan and the way the profile has risen since them two have been involved,” Trundle said. “Not only what they’ve done off the field, but what they’ve done for the football club itself. I never thought that they’d be a big club in America, but that’s what’s happened now, and I’m proud of it.” 

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To go along with the tweaked name, Wrexham donned a redesigned badge at TST, not that anybody in the crowd even noticed. To the bulk of fans in attendance, the mere presence of a team affiliated with their newest favorite club was enough. 

Their excitement rubbed off on the players, too.

“It’s really special,” said Jones. “Coming here and feeling that energy for the games. The entrance and coming onto the pitch is something special. All the enthusiasm. I consider myself someone who won’t get too excited about it but it’s given me a definite lift to get on the pitch and perform. Thanks to them. They’ve been superb.”

(Top photo: Rooted Creative x TST)

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