Hugh Jackman threatens to join rival soccer team to 'stick it to Ryan Reynolds' and Wrexham AFC

Hugh Jackman is already set to face off against his longtime frenemy Ryan Reynolds when Deadpool 3 hits theaters next year. But in the meantime, he's looking to take their rivalry to a very different battleground: the soccer pitch.

The X-Men star, who will reprise his role as Wolverine opposite Reynolds in the much-anticipated threequel, joked in a recent interview that he wants to join England's Norwich City FC and personally lead the team to victory over Reynolds' own soccer club, Wrexham AFC.

"I was like, 'You know what? This whole thing of outsiders coming in buying football teams, it feels a little easy.' So I've decided to go one step further: I'm actually going to try out for the team," Jackman said on the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg. "I think if I really want to stick it to Ryan Reynolds, then if Wrexham get to play Norwich, because obviously there's a different level here, I think it'd be best if I was heading in the winner."

Jackman also revealed that he received multiple ownership offers from rival teams shortly after Reynolds and Always Sunny star Rob McElhenney announced that they'd bought Wrexham in 2020.

"I will admit to you that when Ryan bought that team, I did get more than one offer from rivals to that team for £1 to come in as a co-owner," he said. "And it did seriously tempt me."

Discussing his dynamic with Reynolds, Jackman called it "sort of a sibling rivalry" — with Jackman being the "the older, wiser, smarter, whatever adjective you like that's positive" one, of course.

This isn't the first time Jackman has gotten a kick out of imagining a soccer showdown against Reynolds. The Greatest Showman star previously joked about buying Norwich City FC and staging a winner-takes-all match against Wrexham in a 2021 interview with LadBible.

"Let's get that game together. That'd be fun," Jackman said. "And then maybe Ryan and I could just make it a little side wager. Like, everything; let's just put everything that we own and love — families, kids, everything — on the line."

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