Phil Parkinson, the Wrexham manager, is enjoying the World Cup.The spectacle, the atmosphere, the way football brings nations together – the 58-year-old has lapped it all up from afar at a time when he was also busy preparing for this week’s return of his players to begin pre-season training in north Wales.“I was chatting to Rob a few days ago,” says Parkinson, referring to Wrexham’s Los Angeles-based co-owner Rob Mac, who along with fellow actor Ryan Reynolds has been at the helm of the club for the past five and a half years.“He was saying how World Cup fever has really hit the U.S., and that’s great. People were worried beforehand about the ticket prices and the stadiums maybe not being full.“But the atmosphere looks absolutely amazing, and it’s been a great spectacle so far. And it’s only going to get better. Of course, it helps when the host teams do well, with the U.S., Canada and Mexico all going through (to the knockout stages).”Wales may not have qualified for this year’s World Cup, Craig Bellamy’s side having been beaten on penalties by finals-bound Bosnia and Herzegovina in March’s play-off semi-final. But there’s still plenty to interest fans of Wrexham, who for the first time in club history have had two players participating in the finals.Dominic Hyam was an unused substitute for Scotland in all three group games, but fellow defender Liberato Cacace started all three for New Zealand, in the process joining Dennis Lawrence (Trinidad & Tobago, 2006) as the only active Wrexham player to appear at a World Cup.Wrexham’s Liberato Cacace started all three of New Zealand’s World Cup matches (Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)In a wider sense, there’s also plenty for the club to gain from a successful tournament being staged in countries where they already boast a dedicated following thanks to the success of Welcome to Wrexham.A football boom in the U.S. and Canada can only be good news considering Wrexham’s last available accounts (for 2024-25) revealed how 57.7 per cent of their £33.4million annual turnover came from outside the UK and Europe, which in their case primarily means North America. This was up from 52.1 per cent the previous year when, in fourth-tier League Two, annual turnover stood at £26.7m.With Wrexham set to embark on a third pre-season tour of the U.S. in four years within a week of the World Cup final in New Jersey on July 19, chances are the club will benefit from a further upturn in interest from across the Atlantic.Parkinson, of course, leaves that to the moneymen at the Racecourse Ground. His focus is what happens on the pitch, including the fortunes of Hyam and Cacace, who were obviously absent when the rest of the squad reconvened in Wrexham on Tuesday to kick off pre-season training.“It’s been good to see Libby play games,” he says about wing-back Cacace, whose 2025-26 debut season was ruined by a series of hamstring injuries. “He needed to play and get himself going.“I spoke to Dom before the Brazil game (Scotland’s final fixture of the tournament as they failed to make it out of Group C). Of course, every player wants to play, but he was loving the experience, just being out there and amongst it all. It is the pinnacle of every player’s career to be at a World Cup.”