Paul Philip Mullin (born 6 November 1994) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

side

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

. He is a product of the Everton,

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. The ...

academies. He was the

2020–21 EFL League Two The 2020–21 EFL League Two (referred to as the Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship reasons) was the 17th season of Football League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sp ...

top scorer with

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

and, having helped to secure their promotion to League One as runners-up, then subsequently moved to Wrexham ahead of the 2021–22 season where he again became top-scorer; this time in the National League. Born in England, he is eligible to play for Wales through his grandmother.

Career

Mullin was born in

Litherland Litherland is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside. It was an urban district, which included Seaforth and Ford. It neighbours Waterloo to the north, Seaforth to the west, and Bootle to the south and is approximately north ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

, a supporter of Everton. He spent time in the academies of both Everton and

and after a period in the Liverpool Foundation Football College, he moved to

Huddersfield Town

Huddersfield Town's youth coach

Frankie Bunn Frank Stephen Bunn (born 6 November 1962) is an English former professional footballer who is currently the U23 coach of League One club Wigan Athletic. He holds the Football League Cup record for the most goals (six) by a player in a single match ...

invited Mullin to the squad. Subsequently Mullin was signed to Huddersfield Town in 2012 after impressing at U18 and U21 level; he signed a one-year contract at the club. However, at the end of the 2013–14 season, Mullin was released by the club, without ever making a first team appearance.

Morecambe

After a successful trial period he signed for

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

on a short term contract in August 2014. He made his professional debut coming on as a second-half substitute in the League Cup first round defeat to

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

on 12 August 2014. Four days later, on his league debut, Mullin scored his first professional goal after coming on as a second-half substitute in the 3–2 win over Newport County, which he scored a winning goal. One week later, on 23 August, Mullin made his full debut scoring both goals in a 2–1 win away at

. After scoring three goals in the first seven matches, Mullin signed a three-year contract with the club in mid-September. Then on 31 October 2014, Mullin would end his eleven games without scoring despite losing 2–1 to Accrington Stanley.

Swindon Town

On 27 June 2017, Mullin joined League two club Swindon Town for an undisclosed fee. Mullin was well regarded by fans for his hard-working approach but goals were hard to come by; which led to his departure after only one season.

Tranmere Rovers

In June 2018, he signed for Tranmere Rovers. He scored his first goal for Tranmere in a 4–3

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

loss against Crewe Alexandra on 4 September 2018. In January 2020, Tranmere Rovers took

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

to an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

third round replay after drawing 3–3 at Vicarage Road, Mullin scored a penalty in the first game and went on to score the winner after coming on as a substitute in the replay at

Prenton Park Prenton Park is a large outdoor seated association football stadium in Birkenhead, England. It is the home ground of Tranmere Rovers, as well as Liverpool's women and reserves teams. The ground has had several rebuilds, with the most recent o ...

. Tranmere drew

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

in the fourth round at home.

Cambridge United

Mullin signed for

on a six-month loan deal on 31 January 2020, and scored his first goal for the club on 11 February 2020, away at

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

. He scored again at Leyton Orient on 7 March, the last match before the season was curtailed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In July 2020, Mullin signed permanently on a one-year contract. On 20 October 2020, he scored a hat-trick in a 3–1 victory over

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

, taking his goal total to 11 in ten matches in all competitions. On 27 March 2021, Mullin scored his 25th league goal of the season in a 2–1 victory over

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

, a goal which saw him break David Crown's record for the most league goals by a Cambridge United player in a season. As a gesture, club partners Mead renamed their stand the "Paul Mullin Stand", a name that would stay in place for the remainder of the 2020–21 season. In April 2021, Mullin was nominated for the EFL League Two Player of the Season, before being announced as the winner at the

EFL Awards The EFL Awards is an annual awards ceremony commemorating association football players, clubs and associated individuals involved in the three divisions of the English Football League (EFL). The event was established in 2006 and is usually hel ...

on 29 April, where he was also named in the 2020–21 EFL League Two Team of the Season. Mullin was also awarded the League Two Golden boot after scoring 32 goals in Cambridge United's 2020–21 campaign, in which they secured promotion to the third tier of English football, a record number for the division since its rebranding in 2004.

Wrexham

At the end of the 2020–21 season Mullin rejected a new contract offer with Cambridge United and in July 2021 joined National League side

on a three-year deal. After scoring three goals across the course of the month, including a vital winner against FC Halifax Town, Mullin was awarded the league's Player of the Month award for November 2021. Mullin continued to have a successful first season at Wrexham, winning Wrexham Men's Team Top Goalscorer, Player of the Season, and Goal of the Season awards as well as the National League's Golden Boot and Player of the Season. In October 2022, Mullin posted a picture of his boots on which was written a political message involving the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. The club acted quickly to ban him from wearing the boots, calling the photo an "unwelcome distraction". Later that season, he wore another message on his boots, carrying a dedication to his son Albi who had recently been diagnosed with

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

Career statistics

Honours

Tranmere Rovers * EFL League Two play-offs:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Cambridge United *

EFL League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

runners-up:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Wrexham *

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

: runner-up: 2021–22 Individual *

Player of the Year:

*EFL League Two Top Scorer:

* EFL League Two Team of the Season: 2020–21 *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2020–21 League Two *

Player of the Season:

Top Scorer: 2021–22 *

Player of the Season: 2021–22 *

Goal of the Season: 2021–22

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mullin, Paul 1994 births Living people People from Litherland Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton Welsh footballers Association football forwards Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Vauxhall Motors F.C. players Morecambe F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players National League (English football) players English Football League players Footballers from Liverpool