Paul Mullin: Wrexham striker on Wales ambition and meeting Hollywood owners

Wrexham striker Paul Mullin has seven goals from 10 games so far this season

Paul Mullin says he wants to fulfil a "dream" of playing international football with Wales but for now he is concentrating on his Wrexham role.

The ex-Cambridge United striker, 26, opted to drop down a division and join Wrexham last July.

Mullin says he was wooed by the National League side's ambition.

"My dad's mum was born in Wales. Towards the end of last season, they asked to register me as Welsh on the system," Mullin told Radio Wales Sport.

"I just want to play football and enjoy it. Obviously it's a dream to go and play international football, but not for a moment do I think it's going to happen. But you never know, you work hard and do the best you can and see what happens.

"I chose to come to Wrexham rather than staying higher because I want to do well, I want to test myself, I want to be ambitious and the club reciprocated that in their ambitions for the future.

"Dropping down a league doesn't make differences in terms of that. Ultimately I just want to do well for Wrexham and whatever happens, happens."

Part of the excitement surrounding the north Wales side was its takeover by actors Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds in February 2021.

The Hollywood pair have shared their lofty target of perhaps one day taking Wrexham up through the divisions to the heady heights of the Premier League.

That dream has had a less than smooth start, with new owners, new players and a new manager still bedding down, and Wrexham currently sit 13th in the National League table - eight points off the play-off places.

"The start of the season hasn't gone as planned. It's an old cliché in football when the team clicks they get going," admitted Mullins, who has hit seven goals from 10 games so far this season.

"But we've said that for long enough now, it's getting to the point where we really do need to click and get going. But I'm sure once we do we'll start doing really well and be very consistent and start to get to the top of the table."

For this weekend, at least, the pressures of the league will take a backseat as Wrexham go to Harrogate Town on Saturday in the first round proper of the FA Cup.

'No ego' from Hollywood owners

McElhenney and Reynolds only managed to see their new team in the flesh for the first time within the last fortnight, after being restricted to watching Wrexham matches on streams due to filming commitments and the coronavirus pandemic.

The pair met up with the squad at last and Mullin is impressed with the new owners.

"It was quite strange, but as I've said before, they're just normal people," he said.

"They've worked very hard in their life and they've been very successful at their job, and decided to become football club owners.

"They're not like the usual football club owners, there's no ego about them, they just really want success and to do well and keep being successful in their life. To sit with them was quite surreal… everywhere they go it's like a fan club follows them.

"To share the box with them for 90 minutes was a strange but good experience that I really enjoyed, and just to speak to them about little things like how they find acting and things like that, the hardship of it, because just like football, people don't understand - me included because I'm not an actor - the hard work and the time and hours that goes into it.

"So to speak to them about that and get to know them a bit better was great. I don't know how to describe it really, it just makes you realise that they're just normal people who want to work hard, and hard work gets you success in life, and fair play to them, they've been brilliant in what they've done."

Listen to the full interview on Friday's Radio Wales Sport on BBC Sounds on demand.