He has been the star goal-scorer for Wrexham, a team that has been moving up through England’s soccer leagues after being taken over by Hollywood actors.
A large mural of him can be found in the heart of the city.
He built a strong friendship with Ryan Reynolds, one of the club’s owners, to the point where he even appeared in the latest “Deadpool” movie.
Now, Paul Mullin is facing a downside to Wrexham’s impressive rise — the team seems to have outgrown him.
Mullin, the goal-scoring forward who has been named Wrexham’s player of the season for the past three years, hasn’t played in a league match for nearly two months.
With Wrexham signing two new strikers in the recent transfer window to strengthen its push for promotion to the second-tier Championship, the 30-year-old Mullin has fallen down the selection list and is no longer included in the 18-player matchday squads.
A sudden change
This is a surprising turn of events for a player who has been a key figure in the popular “Welcome to Wrexham” documentary, which was created by Reynolds and Rob McElhenney to follow their journey as first-time soccer club owners.
McElhenney once praised Mullin as “one of the greatest football players in the world,” and his friendship with Reynolds even landed him a cameo as the character “Welshpool” in the “Deadpool & Wolverine” movie.
Mullin has also written a book called “My Wrexham Story,” which talks about his time with the team since joining in July 2021, his career before that, and the lessons he learned after his young son was diagnosed with Autism, which was covered in an episode of “Welcome to Wrexham.”
Mullin’s drop in status could be upsetting for fans who have been cheering for him with “Super Paul Mullin” chants at the team’s Racecourse Ground, where the striker scored more than 100 goals for Wrexham.
Paul Mullin reacts in the gameChris Jones, a long-time season ticket holder for Wrexham, believes Mullin’s struggles are due to the after-effects of minor spinal surgery during the summer, followed by a loss of confidence.
“He just doesn’t look the same,” Jones said in a phone interview. “Whether it’s that injury or something mental.
“You were thinking, ‘Well, is he going to get fit and come back to his best?’ But he got worse and worse. He looks like a player who is finished, who is gone.”
For Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson, Mullin is still an option in the increasingly competitive squad — but not a clear first choice, especially since the team signed Jay Rodriguez, a former Premier League player, and Sam Smith for 2 million pounds ($2.5 million) in January. Wrexham also has Steven Fletcher, a former Scotland international, as a forward option.
“We’ve got a lot of strikers. It’s difficult,” Parkinson said this month. “We can’t keep everyone involved. But we will keep assessing things, looking at training all the time and picking a team, and the bench, accordingly.”
Chasing another promotion
Wrexham’s team needs to keep improving. Just three years ago, they were playing in the fifth tier, outside England’s four professional leagues. Now, they may be only a year and a half away from playing in the Premier League if the club continues its amazing progress.
With a little more than a month left in the regular season, Wrexham is in second place in League One, with the top two teams earning automatic promotion and the next four teams entering the playoffs.
On Saturday, Wrexham will face Exeter, with Mullin expected to be missing once again as talks about his future continue.
