Just like Mohamed Salah & Lionel Messi! Paul Mullin reacts to ‘phenomenal’ Wrexham mural as reasons for joining Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney in North Wales explained

Only a select few can claim to have achieved the level of hero status required in order to see their face splashed across the side of a building. Mullin falls into that category after becoming a prolific presence for Wrexham. Red Dragons fan Liam Stoke-Massy, along with his wife Luka, created a stunning painting on the side of The Fat Boar pub ahead of the 2023-24 season in homage to the man whose 47 goals helped to fire the club back into the Football League.

Mullin has told the Men in Blazers podcast of that recognition, which has seen him join a number of famous names in an exclusive club: “The lad Liam put it up for me while I was away in LA. That’s something for me that was also a proud moment. I go to watch Liverpool, and have done for years, and they have got so many murals around the ground of Anfield of Liverpool players. To have that in Wrexham is something that took my breath away a bit. It looks phenomenal, but it’s also become a shrine! While I was injured, people were putting flowers there! That just shows how well the Wrexham community have taken to me and that’s why I give my absolute all for them because the amount of love they have shown me, it’s only right I reciprocate it. I love the place.”

Mullin joined Wrexham in the summer of 2021, shortly after Hollywood superstars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney had completed their remarkable takeover. He is now a modern day legend in North Wales and has said of his reasons for heading closer to his Merseyside roots from a spell at Cambridge United: “It wasn't even football to begin with, it was my son. Obviously, it's well documented now but he's autistic, and I've been away in Cambridge for the majority of the season, obviously coming home whenever I could, and I just wanted to be at home with him every night, and Wrexham was the perfect opportunity to do that.

"Ultimately, it was perfect for me, as well in the football sense because it was a club with real ambition, a club going somewhere, a club with aims to get out of the league, but also the one above that and the one above that and to keep progressing. I wanted to be excited going into work every day, and I am. But the most important thing was spending valuable time with my son and my family. Wrexham was the opportunity to do that.”

Mullin missed the start of the current campaign through injury, while also serving a suspension after collecting five yellow cards, but he does have six goals to his name this term and has helped to position Wrexham among the League Two promotion-chasers.