“Rotherham is a whole lot like the town I grew up in”

A Las Vegas man is flying 5,000 miles to watch Rotherham United play in his first ever football game, after falling in love with Paul Mullin whilst watching the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary.

Carl Nixon, 64, lives in the La Madre Foothills area of Las Vegas with a view of the strip from his window, but is leaving it all behind for his mammoth solo trip to see Rotherham take on Swindon this week.

Carl is in his 60s, but has never watched a football game in-person | Carl Nixon

placeholder image — Carl is in his 60s, but has never watched a football game in-person | Carl Nixon

“Like many Americans, football is not my top sport, but about March my wife and I were looking for something to watch and we came across the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ documentary,” he said.

“We ended up watching all five seasons in like two weeks. Previous to that I'd probably watched 20 minutes of a football game ever, including the world cup,” he added.

Carl explains that he became a Paul Mullin supporter after watching the show, where Mullin opens up about his son’s autism diagnosis and the impact it had on his life.

“Paul Mullin has a son who is on the spectrum, and my quirky son is also on the spectrum,” he says.

Carl was only able to make the trip after his holiday with his wife, Suzanne, was cancelled | Carl Nixon

When Mullin was looking likely to move from Wrexham to Rotherham, Mr Nixon began digging into the history of the town and the club.

He said: “Rotherham is a whole lot like the town I grew up in, and that's kind of what interested me in Wrexham in the first place - they went through hard times and it was an interesting story.”

Mr Nixon is originally from Akron, Ohio, which at one point was considered the rubber capital of the world.

Much like in Rotherham, a changing economy saw much of the industry leave and left many in the town struggling.

Carl says: “In reading a little bit about the background of Rotherham it feels like the same thing. I can really relate to how important the football club is to the town.”

Now Carl is a true Miller, watching most games from the comfort of his home in Vegas and joining in with the football chat through social media.

“The Saturday morning games come on at 7am here which is a little tough!” he says, explaining that he doesn’t yet have the willpower to wake for the 4.30am kickoffs.

He confesses that he has only started watching football recently and still struggles with some of the intricacies of the game.

“Once I figured out the offside rule I thought ‘okay I've got this’, but I didn’t understand the whole thing about promotion and relegation because in American sports there's none of that,” he says

Nonetheless, Carl will be jumping on a non-stop flight to London for his first ever football game this weekend, and says: “I’m pretty excited about it to be honest with you.

“I've been a football fan for only four months and I’m into my 60s. I've been to dozens, if not hundreds, of American football games but I've never been to any level of football game,” he adds.

The epic trip only came about through chance, when Carl’s holiday with his wife was unexpectedly cancelled.

He says: “I’m sitting on all this airline credit that expires at the end of the year and thought ‘where can I go?’ so I hatched my plan with her and she said ‘why don't you go? I have no interest!’

“My wife thinks I'm nuts - I guess that's how you stay married 30 years,” he adds.

Carl will stay in London and join the travelling Millers on Saturday as they head to Swindon, where he hopes to get stuck in at the away end.

He says: “I’m a friendly guy - I’ll talk to anybody!"