Soccer Team Owners Natalie Portman And Ryan Reynolds Might Plan 'Friendly Matches'

LOADING ERROR LOADING Natalie Portman and Ryan Reynolds might star opposite each other — on a soccer pitch, that is. Portman, who co-founded the professional women’s team Angel City FC in 2020, suggested a “friendly” match against Wrexham AFC — a Welsh club that Reynolds and Rob McElhenney acquired that same year — at Thursday’s premiere of her related docuseries “Angel City.” “I’ve been lucky enough to talk to about his journey, and he’s so inspirational for what he’s done with Wrexham, and they have a women’s team also,” Portman told “Entertainment Tonight” on the red carpet. “So, we have talked about kind of having some friendly matches at some point.” Portman founded Angel City with actor Eva Longoria, soccer star Mia Hamm and tennis legend Serena Williams, among others. really moving when people came on board, because it wasn’t obvious, and we got a lot of no’s before we got a yes,” Portman told “ET.” “And I feel like I didn’t realize what a big deal it was.” Portman added that if she’d had that perspective, it “might have stopped me from doing it.” But she’s been an impassioned soccer fan for years — and she told The Guardian in 2020 that it was her young son’s obsession with America’s female players that inspired her to start a club. “Watching my son idolize players like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan the same way he did Lionel Messi or Karim Benzema, I realized that amplifying female athletes could rapidly shift culture,” the Academy Award winner told the newspaper then.