Manchester United to play Wrexham in San Diego friendly game this summer

Manchester United will play Wrexham in San Diego this summer as part of a week-long pre-season training camp in the United States.

Erik ten Hag is likely to pick a youth-focused team from their travelling tour squad, including academy prospects, for the 25 July encounter at the Snapdragon Stadium in southern California.

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For Wrexham, this will be the first trip to the USA in the non-league side’s history. The Welsh club were brought to prominence in America when taken over by the Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in November 2020.

The friendly date, which will be part of United’s first trip to the US in five years, was announced via Twitter on Monday evening. The clubs also posted a video of the Wrexham co-onwers, Reynolds and McElhenney, taking part in an online video call with Sir Alex Ferguson.

“We’re looking forward to being able to play in the United States for the first time in the club’s history,” said the Wrexham manager, Phil Parkinson. “The tour will be an excellent opportunity for us to prepare for the 2023-24 season and the match will be a competitive fixture and a good test for us as we look ahead to the new campaign.

“We enjoy welcoming supporters from the US to the Racecourse Ground, and we’re looking forward to being able to play in front of some of these new fans on American soil in the summer,” Parkinson added. While McElhenney told fans that tickets are available in a short clip filmed at the stadium, Reynolds tweeted “Wrexham AFC: Coming to America.”

The Manchester United football director, John Murtough, said: “Pre-season tours are always a great occasion to give opportunities for our most promising young academy players to gain valuable experience in the first-team environment, and this match against Wrexham is a great example of that.

“Manchester United has a history of nurturing and promoting youth and this is a chance for not only Erik but also our US supporters to assess the homegrown talent that is developing within our academy,” Murtough added.

The two clubs are currently four tiers apart, with Wrexham pushing for promotion back to the Football League this term, and have never met in the league. The sides’ last fixture came in the 1994-95 FA Cup, when United won 5-2.

The teams have also met before in European competition – a two-legged Cup Winners’ Cup tie in 1990, which was won 5-0 on aggregate by United.