Super Paul Mullin: The Story of Wrexham’s Greatest Modern Hero

What Just Happened?

Wrexham Football Club has officially said goodbye to Paul Mullin — one of the most important players in the club’s entire history. The two sides reached an agreement where Wrexham would pay the final year of Mullin’s contract in full. This means Paul Mullin is now a free agent, free to sign with any club he wants.

It might feel like the end of an era, but his legendary status at Wrexham is absolutely cemented forever.

Who Is Paul Mullin, Anyway?

If you’ve never heard of Paul Mullin before, here’s the quick version:

• He’s a striker — that’s the player whose main job is to score goals.
• He’s from Liverpool, a city up north in England.
• He played for Wrexham, a little club in Wales.
• He became the face of Wrexham’s incredible rise from the very bottom of English football to the big leagues.

His numbers are genuinely jaw-dropping:

110 goals in 172 appearances — that’s a LOT of goals over a LOT of games.

And those goals helped Wrexham achieve something almost unheard of:

Three consecutive promotions — moving up a level three years in a row. Think of it like passing three grades back-to-back without ever having to repeat. That’s basically what Mullin and Wrexham did.

That chant you hear in stadiums — "We’ve got Mullin, Super Paul Mullin" — will probably echo around the stands for generations to come.

How Did Paul Mullin Become Wrexham’s Poster Boy?

The Hollywood Takeover

To understand why Paul Mullin matters so much, you need to understand Wrexham’s story.

In 2021, two famous Hollywood actors — Ryan Reynolds (yes, Deadpool himself) and Rob McElhenney (from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) — bought Wrexham, a struggling old club in the fifth tier of English football. It was the kind of tiny, sleepy club that most people had never heard of.

Then everything changed.

The takeover was filmed for a documentary series called "Welcome to Wrexham" that went massively viral around the world. Suddenly, millions of people were tuning in to watch a tiny Welsh football club try to climb back to greatness. And Paul Mullin became the main character.

The Big Moments

Let’s walk through the moments that made Mullin a legend:

The FA Trophy Semi-Final (2022):
Mullin scored an absurd lob — that’s when you kick the ball high over the goalkeeper’s head from far away — against Stockport County to send Wrexham to Wembley Stadium. It was only the first time Wrexham had reached Wembley during Reynolds and McElhenney’s ownership. Mullin then scored a second goal in that match too, because why stop at one?

The 2022-23 Season:
This was Mullin’s masterpiece. He scored a staggering 38 league goals in a single season. That’s basically a goal every other game, which is an insane record for an outfield player. That firepower propelled Wrexham back into the English Football League (EFL) — something they hadn’t achieved in 15 years.

Promotion Night Against Boreham Wood (2023):
On the night Wrexham clinched promotion back into the EFL, Mullin curled in a beautiful goal to put his team ahead. He also added a second for good measure. The fans partied so hard and so long that some of them were still singing in a McDonald’s hours later.

The Run-In Heroics:
During the climactic stretch of the 2023-24 season, Mullin scored nine goals in just seven games to push Wrexham to another promotion. That kind of form at the most critical moment is the stuff of legendary status.

What About His Coolest Goals?

Mullin himself has trouble picking his favorite. He wavers between:

1. The outrageous lob against Stockport County in the FA Trophy semi-final (2022).
2. The beautifully curled goal against Boreham Wood on the night promotion was clinched (2023).

He scored a second goal in both of those matches too. Brushing up, as he does.

The Misrecorded Goal That Bothered Him

Goals were his business, and Mullin never quite got over being denied a hat-trick against Aldershot Town in February 2023. A backheel he executed was credited as an own goal — the final touch was officially given to a home defender named Corey Jordan. For about the next 18 months, any interviewer who brought up his 38-goal season record or his six hat-tricks in Wrexham colors would quickly be corrected: both figures were "out by one."

Why Did People Love Mullin Beyond Goals?

The "Welcome to Wrexham" Documentary

The TV show didn’t just show Mullin scoring goals. It opened a window into his real life off the pitch, and that’s where fans truly fell in love.

His Son, Albi

Mullin shared something deeply personal on camera: his young son Albi was diagnosed with autism. For those unfamiliar, autism is a condition that affects how a person experiences and interacts with the world around them. It’s not something to be "fixed" — it’s just a different way of being, and every autistic person is unique.

Mullin talked openly about what this meant as a father. He also connected with a teenage Wrexham fan who has autism, forming a powerful and touching friendship.

The "A" Celebration

Whenever Mullin scored, he would celebrate by forming the letter "A" with his fingers. It stood for Albi — and it was also a way to raise awareness for autism. A giant mural of that celebration was painted on the side of a pub in Wrexham called The Fat Boar, and it still looks out over Yorke Street today.

This made Mullin not just a footballer but a symbol and advocate for autism awareness around the world.

His Political Side

Mullin also showed he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind. At one point, he posted a photo of his new football boots on Instagram with the message "F**k the Tories" printed on them. (The Tories are short for the Conservative Party, one of the big political parties in the UK.)

Wrexham quickly made sure those boots never made it onto a football pitch, but the fans loved it. Months later, they were still singing that phrase back at him — yes, inside a McDonald’s after the promotion party against Boreham Wood.

The Risk He Took to Join Wrexham

Here’s something people sometimes forget: joining Wrexham was a genuine gamble for Mullin.

Before he arrived, Mullin had just finished the 2020-21 season as the top scorer in League Two — that’s one of the FOUR professional divisions in English football. He’d scored 32 goals for Cambridge United. He was so beloved there that a stand was temporarily named in his honor.

As a free agent, he had loads of options:

• Championship clubs (one level below the Premier League!) like Birmingham City and Preston North End were interested.
• Wayne Rooney — one of the greatest English players ever — personally invited him to train at Derby County.
• Other clubs like Wigan Athletic, Blackburn Rovers, Charlton Athletic, and Gillingham all wanted him.

And then there was Wrexham — a fifth-tier club, five levels below the Premier League, that a couple of actors had just bought. On paper, it made absolutely zero sense to go there.

But Mullin chose Wrexham. Why?

He wanted to be closer to his family in Liverpool. Wrexham is only about an hour away from his hometown. Family mattered more than prestige.

It turned out to be one of the best decisions of his career — for him and for Wrexham. It was the ultimate win-win.

Achievements and Fame

Mullin’s time at Wrexham brought him far beyond just scoring goals:

• FA Cup Golden Boot (2023) — for scoring 8 goals in the tournament.
• Three consecutive club Player of the Year awards.
• A well-received autobiography.
• A cameo role in Deadpool & Wolverine — the Hollywood blockbuster starring his club’s co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.
• He was once called by Rob McElhenney "the most famous footballer in the United States after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo."

For a player from a tiny club in the fifth tier of football, that’s pretty remarkable.

When Things Got Tough

Mullin’s journey wasn’t always smooth, though. There were real struggles along the way.

The Horrific Injury (2023)

During a pre-season friendly match against Manchester United, Mullin suffered a sickening collision. He ended up with:

• A punctured lung — meaning one of his lungs partially collapsed.
• Four broken ribs.

That’s a serious, scary injury. After he recovered, he went through a goal drought — eight consecutive appearances without scoring. For a player who had built his identity on putting the ball in the net, this was mentally brutal.

But He Never Gave Up

Despite the drought, Mullin never lost belief in himself. And his faith was rewarded. He finished the season with 14 goals in the final 13 games, powering Wrexham to another promotion and securing his third consecutive Player of the Year award.

That kind of resilience — bouncing back from a near-life-threatening injury and a prolonged slump to deliver when it mattered most — is what separates genuinely great players from merely good ones.

The Final Decline

Unfortunately, the later years were harder for Mullin:

• He underwent back surgery in the summer of 2024.
• After that, he never quite reached the same heights — though he did score a stunning volley against Blackpool on Boxing Day that won the club’s goal of the season award.
• With only three goals from nine starts and 17 substitute appearances, Wrexham’s manager Phil Parkinson decided to look elsewhere for goals.

New Players, New Formation

In January 2025, Wrexham signed two new strikers: Sam Smith and Jay Rodriguez. The team switched to a rejigged formation (think of it as a different tactical puzzle piece arrangement on the field), and both Mullin and his strike partner Ollie Palmer were reduced to watching games from the stands.

Smith and Rodriguez were the ones who led Wrexham to promotion that season.

The Loan Spells

After falling down the pecking order at Wrexham, Mullin spent his final contracted year playing on loan at two other clubs: first Wigan Athletic and then Bradford City. This allowed him to stay match-fit and keep playing competitive football, but everyone could tell the relationship between Mullin and Wrexham was heading toward its final chapter.

Finally, when both sides agreed to terminate his contract early, it brought a surprisingly quiet and low-key close to one of the most spectacularly successful player–club partnerships in recent English football history.

The Bigger Picture

When the full story of Wrexham under Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney is eventually told, Paul Mullin’s name will be right at the center. He wasn’t just a goal scorer — he was the catalyst for an entire revival.

He helped:

• Lift a forgotten club from the fifth tier to the third tier in just three years.
• Put a small Welsh town on the global map.
• Make millions of people around the world care about a football club they’d never even heard of.
• Raise awareness and understanding of autism on an international stage.

Paul Mullin took a gamble on a small club owned by two movie stars. Wrexham took a chance on a striker who chose them over bigger, wealthier teams. Both sides got everything they could have hoped for — and then some.

Key Takeaways

Here’s what you need to remember:

• Paul Mullin is now a free agent after Wrexham paid up the final year of his contract.
• He scored 110 goals in 172 games for Wrexham.
• He helped Wrexham achieve three consecutive promotions.
• He became a global star through the "Welcome to Wrexham" documentary.
• He is a passionate autism awareness advocate inspired by his son Albi.
• He even had a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine.
• He once had boots printed with a political message that fans loved.
• His later years were hampered by injuries and declining form, but his legacy is unshakable.
• His departure was quiet, but his impact on Wrexham — and football — is anything but.

Summary

Paul Mullin’s time at Wrexham is a story about belief, bravery, and goals — lots and lots of goals. A striker from Liverpool took a chance on a tiny club in Wales owned by two Hollywood actors, and together they created something truly magical. He scored the goals, faced the injuries, shared his personal life with millions through a documentary, and became the undeniable face of one of the greatest football revival stories of the 21st century. Now a free agent, Mullin leaves Wrexham not with a bang but with a quiet acknowledgment that an era has ended. But the chants of "Super Paul Mullin" will echo around Wrexham for a very, very long time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAFA)

1. Why did Paul Mullin leave Wrexham?
Wrexham and Mullin mutually agreed to end his contract early. The club paid the final year of his deal in full, making him a free agent. His playing time had decreased significantly after injuries, surgery, and the arrival of new strikers Sam Smith and Jay Rodriguez.

2. How many goals did Paul Mullin score for Wrexham?
He scored 110 goals in 172 appearances. His 38-goal season in 2022-23 was particularly historic, as it powered Wrexham back into the English Football League.

3. What does the "A" celebration mean?
Mullin formed the letter "A" with his fingers after every goal to represent his son Albi, who is autistic. The celebration was also a way to raise autism awareness globally. A mural of this celebration is painted on The Fat Boar pub in Wrexham.

4. Did Paul Mullin really appear in Deadpool & Wolverine?
Yes! Mullin had a cameo role in the blockbuster movie starring Wrexham’s co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. It’s a fun little blurring of the lines between his football career and the Hollywood world that now surrounds the club.

5. What made Mullin choose Wrexham over bigger clubs?
Despite interest from Championship-level clubs like Birmingham City and Preston North End, Mullin chose Wrexham because he wanted to be closer to his family in Liverpool (Wrexham is only about an hour away). It turned out to be the best decision for everyone involved.