Wrexham AFC has been football’s feel good underdog story for some time now. After putting consistent displays among the big fish of England in the FA Cup, they have now achieved promotion to the third-tier of English football, League One.
The oldest club in Wales and the third-oldest professional association football team in the world, Wrexham was bought by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney in 2020.
Back then, the club, not lacking in fanbase, but desire and ambition, was struggling in the fifth division and in dire need of a new direction. The change in ownership, set off an era of success for the Welsh club.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney has put Wrexham back on the footballing map. While they attracted global attention through Wrexham’s inclusion in FIFA 22 and their docuseries ‘Welcome to Wrexham’, they have also been able to build a formidable squad which has led the club to a historic double promotion, moving up the ladder from the National League (fifth-tier) and League Two (fourth-tier) to the third in two successive years.
One of their key players and surely their leading man, is the 30-year old striker Paul Mullin. To think of Paul as Wrexham’s figurehead and spear is no mere understatement.
He joined the club in 2021 after achieving promotion to League One with Cambridge United. To convince him to play for a non-league club two tiers below, as Wrexham was at the time, is well-documented in the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ docuseries.
It’s fair to say that the new owners went all out for his signature, with Paul claiming Rob McElhenney’s pursuit to be influential, “The ambition of the Club attracted me here. Rob McElhenney gave me a call a couple of nights ago – at that time, I wasn’t too sure about making the move – but once he outlined the plans for the Club, and the plans for me in the future, it was something I really wanted to be a part of and something that just excited me that much that I had to come.”
While the club’s project and ambition was contagious and certainly played a role in his arrival, the wages he was offered on his contract was, let’s just say, impressionable. Much has been made of that actually, especially after the club’s promotion to League One.
Though the details of his contract have not been made public, it is widely reported that Mullin earns a lump sum of 4,800 pounds per week. An astonishing figure, considering it is four-times the wages an average National League player would earn. Factor in the 200,000 pound bonus Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney handed out to the players who achieved promotion to League Two, it comes out to a pretty decent sum.
While he reportedly earns a huge wage, the first one at Wrexham to do so, he is not among the most remunerated at the club, at least not anymore. English centre-back George Evans is the highest wage earner at Wrexham, earning close to 7,200 pounds per week. With a wage bill at 5,221,320 pounds per year, Evans’s salary contributes to 7% of the bill alone. Paul is now 7th on the list, indicative of the wind of change in wage structure taking place in the lower-ranked leagues.
The wages offered might have been a reason behind his arrival, especially to lower-ranked club, but he denies the claims that he is motivated by money. “I could’ve accepted £60,000 ($75,000) per week in China, if I wanted to” said Mullin, insisting that money wasn’t his motivation.
Indeed, some his team-mates at the time were seen poking fun at the rumoured figure, playing the ‘Here Comes The Money’ song, by Naughty By Nature, to mock the former Cambridge United striker.
However as much as he earns, there is not a single shred of doubt that he has been worth every penny for Wrexham. The club’s first marquee signing, Paul Mullin repaid the faith racking an unreal amount of 46 goals in the 2022/23 season, firing Wrexham to League Two, the fourth-tier in English football and achieving promotion to league football after 15 years.
He may be earning a lot at Wrexham, but Paul is already a legend at the club. Only last week he celebrated his 100th goal in Wrexham colors. Even now, he is back where he left off, League One. So is his new club. Make no mistake about it, Paul has been the difference-maker. It had been a gamble by both parties but have cashed out handsomely. Now in the third-tier, Wrexham and Paul have come a long way, as a key piece of the puzzle as he has been, he will continue to do as the club dream of pushing further above their weight and reaching the Premier League in the not-so-distant future.
