Paul Mullin’s exit was inevitable, but that didn't make it any easier for Wrexham fans when it became official.
The 31-year-old has left Wrexham as a free agent after the club and player agreed to a mutual termination of his contract, bringing an end to five remarkable years in North Wales.
Mullin has been the poster boy for the Welsh club’s rise from the National League to the brink of the Premier League—the marquee signing who got the ball rolling as Wrexham gathered momentum and swept aside everything in their path.
His record of 110 goals in 172 appearances speaks for itself. So do three consecutive promotions, three straight Player of the Year awards, two Wrexham Goal of the Season awards and the FA Cup Golden Ball for finishing as the competition’s top scorer. Yet even those achievements only tell part of the story. His impact extended far beyond the pitch.
What Mullin Means to Wrexham Fans
Mullin resonated so deeply with the Wrexham fanbase because he was genuine: an honest, hardworking family man who never shied away from speaking his mind. Passionate and outspoken, he always stood by his beliefs—even when it landed him in trouble with the club after unveiling boots featuring an offensive slogan aimed at the Conservative Party that led the United Kingdom government at the time.
In a modern game where players are increasingly media-trained and carefully inoffensive, it was refreshing to see someone willing to speak authentically, even if not every supporter agreed with his views.
That authenticity also shone through in FX’s award-winning docuseries Welcome to Wrexham, where viewers saw that family was at the center of every decision he made, particularly when it came to the needs of his autistic son, Albi. Rather than use his global platform for self-promotion, Mullin used it to raise awareness of autism and became an ambassador for Your Space, a North Wales charity that supports autistic children, young adults and their families.
Despite his almost superhuman exploits on the soccer field, which elevated him to near-mythical status among supporters, Mullin always came across as an ordinary person dealing with the same everyday worries and emotions as everyone else. Those who discovered the series through Rob Mac and Ryan Reynolds quickly realized that Wrexham and its people were the true stars of the show, with Mullin front and center throughout the club’s extraordinary rise.
His goals made him synonymous with Wrexham itself. He became the face of brand partnerships, advertising campaigns, club media and even made a surprise cameo as “Welshpool” in the blockbuster film Deadpool & Wolverine ... despite not officially being Welsh.
A proud Scouser from Liverpool, Mullin has long embraced the “Scouse, not English” identity, reflecting a strong sense of regional pride born from decades of economic and political neglect.
Those beliefs struck a chord with a Wrexham fanbase that had experienced its own years of neglect and felt overlooked by the wider soccer world. Mullin understood those loyal supporters who had endured the barren years and made it his mission to give them something to be proud of.
Eligible to represent Wales through his grandmother, Mullin spoke openly about his dream of playing for his adopted nation. He came under serious consideration for a call-up in March 2023 but was ultimately overlooked in favor of players competing at a higher level.
That became one of the few criticisms leveled against him. Even now, as he leaves Wrexham, some will dismiss him as little more than a lower-league journeyman who simply excelled beneath his true level. While Mullin was undoubtedly a class above in the National League and League Two, those arguments overlook the relentless work ethic, dedication and consistency of a player who invariably delivered when the stakes were highest.
The Most Important Wrexham Signing Ever
Mullin is not Wrexham’s greatest player of all time, nor would he necessarily make the club’s all-time best XI. But there is a compelling argument that he is the most important signing in the club’s history.
After scoring 34 goals in 50 appearances for Cambridge United to fire them to promotion from League Two, he not only won the League Two Player of the Year award but also had a stand named after him at the Abbey Stadium. Championship clubs, along with several ambitious League One sides, were eager to sign him.
Instead, he took an extraordinary gamble.
Mullin chose to drop into non-league football with a Wrexham side still in the infancy of the Hollywood takeover, at a time when many questioned whether the project was truly sustainable. He later revealed that the club’s ambition proved decisive after co-owner Mac spent a lengthy phone call convincing him to take the leap into the unknown.
That decision instantly legitimized Wrexham’s ambitions. Anyone who had doubted the seriousness of the project suddenly had to take notice.
“We landed a target most would have felt was unachievable,” club director Humphrey Ker said at the time.
There were still concerns, though. Everyone knew Wrexham had money, and many feared the club would simply attract mercenaries interested only in a lucrative paycheck rather than the sporting project.
Those fears disappeared quickly.
In his debut season, Mullin scored 32 goals in all competitions as Phil Parkinson’s side narrowly missed out on promotion in the playoffs. Rather than diminish his motivation, that disappointment only fueled it.
The following season, he scored 47 goals as Wrexham won the National League title, with his match-winning double against Boreham Wood to clinch promotion remaining perhaps the defining moment of the Hollywood era.
Equally remarkable were the 26 goals he scored during Wrexham’s promotion-winning League Two campaign after suffering a punctured lung in preseason that forced him to miss the start of the campaign. It took time to shake off the rust, but once he rediscovered his rhythm, he again became the catalyst for promotion.
| 21–22 | 22–23 | 23–24 | 24–25 | 25–26 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appearances | 44 | 53 | 43 | 32 | 0 |
| Goals scored | 32 | 47 | 26 | 5 | 0 |
| Division | National League | National League | League Two | League One | Championship |
The following season, he missed the club’s preseason tour of the United States while recovering from minor spinal surgery. Although he scored only five goals as Wrexham secured promotion from League One, he still produced one of the season’s defining moments with his stunning Goal of the Season-winning strike against Blackpool on Boxing Day.
After unsuccessful loan spells at Wigan Athletic and Bradford City last season, it became increasingly clear that his time in North Wales was drawing to a close.
Although he may no longer play a direct role in Wrexham’s future, he will always be remembered as the man who laid the foundations that made everything else possible.
“The reason all of us boys are allowed to be at the club now,” Josh Windass, who inherited Mullin’s No. 10 shirt, wrote on social media.
If anyone ever doubts what Paul Mullin means to Wrexham, they simply don’t understand.
