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Star striker Mullin captioned a photo from the Sin City celebration by saying, "And we hate the f***ing King!." McClean reposted the photo and added, "We serve no king or kaiser but Ireland! Sue me." Both posts were since deleted.
The third-oldest professional football club in the world, Wrexham has enjoyed a pleasant reversal of fortunes since the arrival of McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, re-entering the Football League last season and breaking into League One for the first time since 2005 with a second-place finish in 2024. The wealthy owners treated the team to a blowout party in Las Vegas for the second-straight season, where McElhenney joined the squad in the iconic party city for an evening that included nightclubs, pool parties and a live look at Canelo Alvarez's fourth-round knockout of Jamie Munguia.
McClean hasn't been shy about voicing his politics throughout a 12-year career in the English football pyramid, where the Ireland international has scored 73 goals in more than 500 appearances from the wing. He previously faced criticism while playing for Sunderland in 2012 for declining to wear a poppy symbol, donned to commemorate British soldiers who died in military conflict, due to the history of violence in Northern Ireland.
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"I have complete respect for those who fought and died in both World Wars - many I know were Irish-born. I mourn their deaths like every other decent person and if the Poppy was a symbol only for the lost souls of World War I and II I would wear one."
"But the Poppy is used to remember victims of other conflicts since 1945 and this is where the problem starts for me. For people from the North of Ireland such as myself, and specifically those in Derry. scene of the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre, the poppy has come to mean something very different."
Similarly, Mullin's anti-monarchical sentiment has been noted in his book My Wrexham Story, saying, "I've no interest in royalty. I don't see why anyone should have the God-given right to be born into such wealth, and then for us to pay for them as well. It just comes down to basic fairness."
Despite their attacks on King Charles and the Monarchy, McClean and Mullin leave Las Vegas with their Wrexham roles in tact, a fortune not shared by many of their teammates. Eight Dragons players were released by the club while in Nevada ahead of the step up to League One football, including longtime captain Luke Young, who appeared 225 times for the Welsh side.
