Arthur Okonkwo snubbed ‘offers from higher level’ to rejoin Wrexham as Phil Parkinson salutes ‘statement signing’ from Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney

Arthur Okonkwo snubbed “offers from a higher level” to rejoin Wrexham, with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney completing a “statement signing”.

The Red Dragons always believed that they could get a deal done for the 22-year-old goalkeeper, having seen him help them to promotion out of League Two in 2023-24. He bought into that project, while being unfazed by the Welcome to Wrexham documentary cameras, and opted to return to North Wales when reaching the end of his contract at Arsenal and becoming a free agent.

Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson has told The Leader of landing a top transfer target: “We are pleased Arthur has joined us permanently. It is a great signing for us. We know what he is capable of with the season he had last year. His profile as a goalkeeper, inevitably there was going to be a lot of interest in him in the summer and there was a lot of hard work behind the scenes to secure Arthur’s signing. Credit to everybody getting the deal done.

“It is important that we work hard to secure the players we really feel can make a difference. We feel that Arthur is one of those who is going to keep improving. He is still young for a goalkeeper. He has had a couple of seasons now at first-team level and he is a really good character as well. We wanted him to stay with us in the long-term. I am delighted he had joined us and it is a statement signing.”