Wrexham Association Football Club is an association football club based in Wrexham, Wales. Founded in October 1864, it is the oldest football club in Wales and the third-oldest professional association football team in the world.[1] After playing in the Combination and regional leagues for several years, Wrexham joined the Football League shortly after the First World War, as a founding member of the new Third Division North. The club remained in the Football League for over 85 years, before they were relegated to the National League in 2008.[2] They remained in the fifth tier of English football for the next 15 seasons, missing out on promotion through the play-offs on five separate occasions.[3] Wrexham were promoted in two consecutive seasons between 2022 and 2024, and will play in League One for the first time since 2005.[4]
Wrexham's first team has competed in numerous nationally and internationally organised competitions. As of the end of the 2023–24 season, a total of 209 players have appeared in 100 or more such matches for the club. Arfon Griffiths holds the record for the greatest number of appearances for Wrexham. In two spells between 1959 and 1979, the Welsh winger played 721 times in all competitions for the club.[5] As of 2001, eleven other players have made more than 400 appearances for Wrexham.[6] The club's goalscoring record is held by Tommy Bamford, who scored 209 goals in all competitions between 1929 and 1934.[7] To date, Bamford is the only player to have scored 200 goals for Wrexham.[7] He also holds the club records for most goals in a season (51 in 1933–34) and most goals per game (0.855).[8][9] Ten players on this list went on to manage Wrexham – Ken Barnes, Arfon Griffiths, Mel Sutton, Dixie McNeil, Brian Flynn, Joey Jones, Brian Carey, Andy Morrell, Dean Keates and Bryan Hughes.[10]