Paul Mullin could have been playing in La Liga, rather than League Two, with money troubles at Racing Santander dashing his Spanish dream.
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Striker headed to Europe when leaving LiverpoolWas all set to agree a deal in SantanderReturned to England to impress in lower leaguesWHAT HAPPENED?
The prolific frontman is currently starring for ambitious Welsh outfit Wrexham, having helped to fire them back into the Football League last season. He is working with Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at SToK Racecourse, but his career could have taken a different path had a teenage adventure in Spain not come crashing down around him.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesWHAT MULLIN SAID
Mullin has said in his autobiography of heading to Europe after being let go by the club that he supported as a boy: “So while I was devastated to be released by Liverpool, I still had hope. As it happened, a friend of my uncle’s, Isaac Gutierrez, was a physio at Spanish La Liga club Racing Santander. I went over for a trial and loved it – and they loved me. I ended up staying out there for three months, to the end of the 2010-11 season. I was only sixteen and my grandad Bobby came with me. That was great for me. In Santander, on Spain’s north coast, we were meant to be staying in an apartment belonging to someone we knew but when we got there it was in a bit of a state, full of dust. ‘We’re not staying here,’ Bobby said, and promptly booked us into the best hotel on the seafront. With the team training in the evenings, we’d spend our days messing about on the beach. When he went home, I moved into digs – a good lesson in independence and growing up. Santander wanted me to sign and, after returning home at the end of the season, I went back in the summer to do just that. At which point the club went into administration. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I’d got a great new start in Spain only for the club to end up in crisis, and its owner wanted by Interpol. Instead I was left hunting for a club back in the UK.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Mullin could have found himself lining up against the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid had things worked out differently, with the 29-year-old saying of his early interest in Spanish football and which side he considers to be his favourite: “Joanne (Mullin's sister) has always been amazing with me. She really did spoil me badly, even buying me games for my PlayStation Portable. When we went to Madrid to visit Jonathan (Mullin's brother), who was living out there at the time, she took me to a big shopping centre and bought me a new Atlético Madrid kit – she knew I preferred them to Real.”
GettyWHAT NEXT FOR MULLIN?
Mullin ended up at Wrexham in the summer of 2021, shortly after Reynolds and McElhenney’s takeover of the club, and has hit 85 goals for them through 110 appearances. He is now a firm fan favourite in North Wales and is hoping to see his current employers become a top-tier outfit at some stage in the future.
Buy your copy of Paul Mullin's brilliant new autobiography My Wrexham Story on Amazon.
