Eva Longoria talks ‘storytelling through soccer' as the Reynolds-McElhenney empire hits Colombia

New York Times

05-02-2025

'I hate the word celebrity,' says Eva Longoria, laughing, 'It's, 'Oh, you have a celebrity tequila?' No, I have a tequila. 'Well, you have a celebrity soccer team?' No, we own a soccer team. For me, it is about being an investor.'
Longoria, whose most iconic acting role was as Gaby Solis in an eight-year run on Desperate Housewives, has been asked by The Athletic why a growing cast of North America's rich and famous have caught the bug for soccer and, more to the point, why they are putting their money into it.
Advertisement
First, she explains that 'famous people have the capital to risk' and that a 'Moneyball' approach, as she describes it, to uncover undervalued teams can yield significant returns. 'My approach to it is as an entrepreneur; we can do a good investment and at the same time I can make a difference with my platform to get more press, sponsorships and media coverage that help the investment.'
Last month, she was part of a group that acquired Colombian first-division club La Equidad and also featured Rob McElhenney, the American actor and screenwriter, and his Canadian business partner, actor Ryan Reynolds. That pair's ownership of Wrexham, taking the team from the fifth tier of English football to the third, has been charted through FX's fly-on-the-wall documentary, Welcome to Wrexham.
The success of the Wrexham project has led to widespread intrigue about the growing portfolio of McElhenney/Reynolds' soccer investments. Heading the deal to buy La Equidad, valued at around $30million (£24m), was real estate financier Al Tylis and sports executive Sam Porter. As well as Longoria, it includes MLB pitcher Justin Verlander, his model wife Kate Upton, four-time NBA All-Star Shawn Marion, and podcaster and entrepreneur Scott Galloway — known as Prof G.
As the conversation with Longoria continues, it becomes clear this is also a passion project that extends far beyond the spreadsheet.
'I feel like sports is entertainment,' she continues. 'Storytelling through soccer is so powerful because the stakes are so high. The drama of winning and losing, injuries, firing a coach, bringing in a new player — the excitement is built-in drama. You could never write this. I was like, 'Wow, this is this is the biggest soap opera I've ever seen' Every player has a story. Every team has a story. Every town has a story.'
Advertisement
This is the second investment in a soccer team for the Tylis-Porter group. They previously acquired around 50 percent of Club Necaxa in the Mexican top tier in 2021, while the group also invested in other sports ventures, including the D.C. Pickleball Team in Major League Pickleball. McElhenney and Reynolds took a small stake in Necaxa in 2024, while the Tylis-Porter group took a reciprocal share in Wrexham.
The Necaxa owners have already filmed a docuseries entitled Bienvenido a Necaxa (Welcome to Necaxa), ordered by FX and Disney+ Latin America. Longoria, Reynolds and McElhenney will be executive producers and on-air stars in a show that will be accessible to an English and Spanish-speaking audience. Another docuseries about La Equidad is likely to follow.
'When you look at Necaxa, Wrexham and La Equidad, they have traditionally been good, there's a rich history, but they don't have the resources that a lot of the clubs up at the top have,' McElhenney tells The Athletic. 'Even though it's different countries, continents or languages, we look for similar identifying principles. Do they have a rabid fanbase looking for a group of people to come in and help them achieve their goal?
'With the globalisation of pretty much everything in our culture, the idea of creating fanbases that span the world is an amazing thing to see. To be walking down the streets of Des Moines, Iowa, or Oakland, California, and see people wearing Wrexham gear because of the strength of the documentary or because of the reach of Ryan (Reynolds)… it hit a chord with people's hearts and souls. They didn't even consider themselves a football fan before and now they're a diehard Wrexham fan.
'We can make those connections all across the world; if you are a fan of Wrexham, you should be a fan of Necaxa or La Equidad. We all have the same needs, wants, loves and heartbreak, so let's link arms and follow each other. If we believe in the story that I just laid out for you, we believe the business can work.'
Advertisement
During an extensive conversation, it becomes clear that Longoria is no passive investor. Her interest in soccer investment began, she says, when she bought into the NWSL team Angel City as part of an ownership group that included actors such as Natalie Portman, Uzo Aduba, Jessica Chastain, America Ferrera and Jennifer Garner. The motivation in that case was to see a soccer club run 'from a very pure intention of gender equality and pay equality in soccer.' At games, she discovered an 'electric' atmosphere.
At Necaxa, her role is more hands-on. Managing partner Sam Porter says Longoria interviewed potential head coaches for the Mexican team, including their most recent hire, Nicolás Larcamón. 'She was very optimistic and bullish and impressed with him (Larcamón), and he has gotten off to a solid start,' Porter says.
Longoria admits it is like a full-time job watching all the games, needing a different app depending on where she is in the world. 'I'm texting the captain,' she says. 'I'm texting the coach. I'm just like, 'Great job, or sorry for the loss.' It is like a new family for me. That's how we started with Angel City. Before we sold, we called ourselves the 'soccer moms' because we would go to the games. We would be like, 'Do we hand out oranges?' It was Jennifer Garner, Natalie Portman and myself.'
Tylis and Porter impressed on her the size of the potential audience for Necaxa — more than 165 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans across Mexico and the U.S. — as well as Liga MX rivalling the English Premier League to be the most-viewed soccer league in the U.S.
Longoria is herself Mexican American, so while the latest venture into Colombia tugged less on the heartstrings, it offered a compelling business case. La Equidad is located in the Colombian capital of Bogota and the team's home stadium, Estadio Metropolitano de Techo, has a capacity of 10,000. The team finished 13th out of 20 teams in the top flight of the 2024 league phase in Colombia.
The level of Colombia's Categoria Primera A, according to the data model of sports intelligence firm Twenty First Group, is the 37th strongest globally, similar in quality to the Scottish Premiership. Twenty First Group ranks more than 4,000 teams globally and uses results from domestic, continental, and intercontinental matches to assess the relative standard of teams and leagues.
In 2024, the revenues for La Equidad were in the low eight figures in USD, according to sources familiar with the club's finances, who wished to remain anonymous as they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly, while they said the club spends just under half its revenues on player salaries. The Colombian league's media rights deal is nearing an end and Porter's expectation is that the next contract will be 'much improved.'
Advertisement
Longoria says: 'I sat with Sam and Al in New York. Sam is the Moneyball guy, like the Bill Gates of sports. I know Colombia is a country with a very rich soccer history and an immense amount of talent. Everybody's invested in their hometown team. It's been interesting to approach sports with this analytical lens instead of just being like, 'My favourite team is Real Madrid or the Dallas Cowboys.' But to really get granular and analytical about players, wins, losses, rankings and playoff spots, that to me is fascinating. I just get blown away by the process. I don't think I'll be stopping anytime soon.'
Porter says his group analysed the landscape of professional football globally, including the English Premier League, where he was previously on the board of Swansea City. They narrowed the options to Uruguay and Colombia and looked at media rights, revenues, acquisition costs, salaries and various other data points and social factors, before making the move to invest. Porter regards Latin American football generally as being an 'under-invested' area that 'lends itself to there being an opportunity to be a first-mover.'
Colombia's women's team reached the quarterfinal of the World Cup in 2023 and the men's team was defeated in the final of Copa America in 2024. Porter also cites potential growth in the media rights in both the men's and women's games of the Copa Libertadores, the South American version of the Champions League. He believes more U.S. capital will enter the Colombian game. 'There's a tremendous amount of talent and it is the third biggest economy in South America,' he adds. 'They export a lot of professional soccer players, both male and female. The country's got over 50 million people, a bigger population than Spain.'
For the new owners of La Equidad, work has already begun. Porter says plans are already underway to make the existing training facility 'top of class in Colombia', as is the process of hiring a development staff, a nutritionist, an additional strength conditioning coach and a mental coach.
As for a documentary in Colombia, both Longoria and McElhenney have interest. Longoria says she intends to visit Bogota and La Equidad before deciding whether a TV show should be made. 'There's been a couple of other shows we've tried to do in the sports space that were like, 'No, that person just isn't popping.' But then you get the freaking equipment guy in Necaxa! He's a character. You're like, 'This guy needs his own show!''
McElhenney recognises that access and authenticity are key. He too intends to spend time in the local Colombian community.
He says: 'You can turn on Disney, Hulu or Netflix and find hundreds, if not thousands, of documentaries on sports. Some are really engaging, but some are terrible and boring and seem as if it was a money grab instead of actually trying to tell a story.
'It's really hard to have a camera shoved in your face all the time or to wear a microphone. People think that since you're an actor, it must be easy. It really isn't. It's terrifying for us and for the players.
'The only way you're going to get that level of authenticity is if you are willing to bare it all. There are plenty of times I'm sitting in an editing room and when I rewatch some footage, I sometimes look petulant or not like the kind of person that I would want to put out into the world. I realise if I don't put that in the show, then people will smell that out. They will see this is inauthentic, that I'm creating some sort of propaganda piece.
Advertisement
'You can't manipulate it. You can't create it from nothing. If you ask the right questions and people are willing to give truthful answers to those questions, there's a wellspring of stories in every community across the world. You just have to know how to tell it.'