"The reason all of us boys are allowed to be at the club now." That's how Josh Windass — who inherited Mullin's No. 10 shirt — summed it up on social media. It's hard to argue.
Paul Mullin has left Wrexham after five years, 110 goals in 172 appearances, and three consecutive promotions. The club and player agreed to a mutual termination, ending a chapter that genuinely altered the trajectory of Welsh football.
The gamble that made Wrexham real
When Mullin signed in 2021, he had just scored 34 goals in 50 games for Cambridge United to win League Two Player of the Year. Championship clubs wanted him. Instead, he dropped into non-league football for a project most people still weren't convinced was serious.
That decision alone changed the conversation. Director Humphrey Ker said at the time: "We landed a target most would have felt was unachievable." He wasn't wrong. The fear at Wrexham was that Hollywood money would attract mercenaries, players chasing a paycheck attached to a novelty. Mullin made that argument irrelevant almost immediately.
In his first season, he scored 32 goals and Wrexham narrowly missed promotion in the playoffs. The next, he scored 47 as they won the National League title — including the match-winning double against Boreham Wood that clinched it. That goal, that night, is the defining image of the club's modern era.
What followed was equally telling. He returned from a punctured lung mid-season to score 26 goals and drive a League Two promotion. Minor spinal surgery ruled him out of preseason the year after, and he still produced a Goal of the Season contender against Blackpool on Boxing Day. Three Player of the Year awards in three years. These were not token votes.
More than goals, more than the show
Mullin's profile extended well beyond the pitch — a Deadpool & Wolverine cameo as "Welshpool", brand partnerships, club campaigns — but what actually connected him to supporters was simpler than any of that. In the FX docuseries Welcome to Wrexham, viewers saw a player whose decisions revolved around his autistic son, Albi. He used his platform to become an ambassador for Your Space, a North Wales charity supporting autistic children and their families. In a sport full of carefully managed public images, that kind of authenticity is genuinely rare.
He also resonated politically. A proud Scouser who identifies as "Scouse, not English", his regional pride — born from decades of economic neglect — found a natural echo in a fanbase that had spent years feeling overlooked by the wider football world. Even his decision to wear boots with an anti-Conservative slogan, which landed him in trouble with the club, reinforced the same point: this was someone who meant what he said.
- 110 goals in 172 appearances
- Three consecutive promotions (National League, League Two, League One)
- Three Wrexham Player of the Year awards
- Two Wrexham Goal of the Season awards
- FA Cup Golden Ball as the competition's top scorer
Loan spells at Wigan and Bradford last season made the ending predictable. He was 31, the club is pushing toward the Championship, and the gap between sentiment and squad selection eventually closes. None of that diminishes what came before.
Mullin isn't Wrexham's greatest player in a historical sense, and he wouldn't walk into their all-time XI on pure quality. But the argument that he is the most important signing in the club's history is a strong one. Without that 2021 gamble — his gamble, not just the club's — the Hollywood project might have remained an interesting story rather than a genuine football phenomenon. Everything Wrexham have built since runs through that moment.
"If anyone ever doubts what Paul Mullin means to Wrexham," Windass added, "they simply don't understand."
