Discussing English football ownership is turning into the ultimate name drop. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at Wrexham. Tom Brady at Birmingham City. Michael B. Jordan at Bournemouth. J.J. Watt at Burnley. Even Snoop Dogg is in on the action, becoming co-owner of Swansea City this summer.

But the American invasion of English football has moved beyond novelty. Twelve of the Premier League’s 20 clubs now answer to U.S. ownership—either wholly or partially. Drop down to the Championship, English football’s second tier, and nine more clubs are backed by American money.

On Friday, when Wrexham hosts Birmingham City, it will be a clash of two celebrity-driven, American-backed clubs facing off on U.K. soil. It’s Reynolds and McElhenney versus Brady, and it’s a matchup that captures exactly h

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