“My phone kept buzzing with messages, but I was so tired, I went straight to sleep — I hadn’t realised I’d set the record!”

For Linfield captain Jamie Mulgrew, last Tuesday night was just like any other. The 38-year-old midfielder spent the evening coaching the club’s under-18s. Once home, he watched the football, then went to bed. Yet for Mulgrew and Linfield, this was a record-breaking evening.

The televised match was between Linfield’s two closest rivals: Glentoran drew against Larne, confirming Linfield as champions for the 57th time, a world record. That success confirmed Mulgrew’s 11th league winner’s medal — setting a national record and joining an exclusive global club. It was an extraordinary achievement in the most ordinary of circumstances.

“In some ways, it was an anti-climax,” Mulgrew admits. “You would always prefer to win it on the pitch.” The title was confirmed with six matchdays remaining.

Only four active professional footballers — Dinamo Zagreb’s Arijan Ademi (13), Bayern Munich’s Thomas Muller, James Forrest of Celtic and former TNS full-back Chris Marriott (all 12) — have won more league titles than Mulgrew’s at one European club. Yet there is one key difference: Linfield have been significantly less dominant domestically than any of those clubs. Larne entered this season as back-to-back champions and, since 2013, Crusaders had won three league titles and Cliftonville two.

Mulgrew, who turns 39 in July, insists those title-less campaigns make his successes more enjoyable, highlighting the five-year gap between titles from 2012 to 2017.

“You never know if it’s going to be your last one and that makes them sweeter,” he offers. “The hunger for more never disappears.”

Mulgrew began his career at Glentoran, Linfield’s primary Belfast rivals.

He made two first-team appearances, including during their 2004-05 league success. Linfield approached Mulgrew that summer, with the 19-year-old’s contract expiring, and he decided to join the club he had supported in his youth. That 2005-06 season saw Linfield complete a clean sweep of all four domestic trophies, but a recurring medial knee injury limited Mulgrew’s game time.

For successive seasons, the midfielder was involved in title-winning squads but missed the minimum appearance threshold to claim a winner’s medal.

Mulgrew, who has 26 trophies and counting at Linfield, believes his ascent to the captaincy was born of having to fight for recognition in a dressing room of serial winners. “That squad I joined was full of leaders and big personalities,” he explains. “You had to adapt to those standards. Back then, it was only 14-player matchday squads, so you constantly had that pressure of performing and working hard.”

His longevity is made more remarkable given his playing style; Mulgrew is a combative midfielder comfortable at carrying the ball, shuffling past opponents and drawing free kicks due to his low centre of gravity. While no statistical measurement is available, he is widely considered to be the Irish League’s most fouled player.

Yet he has other qualities that are arguably more important: constantly instructing team-mates on positioning, what runs to make, when to push up the pitch and when to slow a game down. He credits his leadership to his early years at the club.

“I was shaped by that pressure to win and perform, of needing to know how to train, to set an example on and off the pitch, to have the right combination between confidence and staying humble… and that hunger,” he says. “To use criticism as fuel. That is what I try to instil in my team-mates and the youngsters I coach.”

Mulgrew swaps pennants with Celtic’s Scott Brown ahead of a Champions League qualifier in 2017 (Craig Williamson – SNS GroupSNS Group via Getty Images)

One of the midfielder’s biggest tasks is helping new players integrate into a winning culture.

“The pressures at Linfield are unique — winning trophies is everything,” says Mulgrew. “I joined the club so young, that environment is all I have ever known. But others take time to adjust. It is our job to make them comfortable, but our responsibility for them is more than that — we need to win for them. If they join a winning team, that pressure lifts.”

Mulgrew will almost certainly not surpass the remarkable tally of 1,013 Linfield appearances set by his former team-mate, Noel Bailie, but he is closing in on the 800-game landmark. There has previously been interest from elsewhere. In 2011, a year after his two international appearances for Northern Ireland, Mulgrew’s Linfield contract was expiring and he attracted interest from Colombus Crew and Portland Timbers in Major League Soccer. The midfielder travelled to the United States for separate trial periods but decided against a move.

In 2021, Linfield went full-time; an upgrade from their previous semi-professional status. This was not without risk, with several of Mulgrew’s long-term team-mates deciding to move elsewhere due to personal circumstances. Yet, for Mulgrew, the opportunity to become full-time, aged 34, was too good to turn down.

His work outside football was centred on afternoons, with the new model freeing up his evenings to spend with his wife and three young children. “That decision, without doubt, has prolonged my career.”

Mulgrew fires off a shot during a UEFA Conference League play-off in 2022 (Liam McBurney/PA Images via Getty Images)

For Mulgrew and his team-mates, this season’s trophy lift will have added poignance.

In June 2024, the club’s physiotherapist, Paul Butler, passed away suddenly aged 37. Six months later, Michael Newberry — the defender who spent three and a half seasons at Linfield before joining Cliftonville last summer — died on his 27th birthday.

“What has happened in the past year is hard to come to terms with,” says Mulgrew, whose brother-in-law passed away in 2023. “We can forget how anyone, no matter how famous or successful, are just people and we all go through the same emotions.

“For us, being in a team environment and going in to train every day together is an important support network. Everyone here has helped each other. We have a really strong changing room, you can maintain the normality with the banter and the support. We genuinely enjoy spending time with each other.

“This squad has great character and resilience, too, that is borne out through our results this season but also coming through everything we have together.”

Mulgrew has already committed himself to Linfield for next season, which will take him up to his 40th birthday. “I won’t outstay my welcome,” he says. “I will know when it’s time to move aside.”

He believes he needs to listen to his body more, admitting to playing through muscular pain earlier in the campaign. That is indicative of his relentless desire to be involved but, these days, he has to compromise.

Mulgrew begins his UEFA Pro coaching licence next week and while current Linfield manager David Healy has previously said he is “keeping the seat warm for him” and often consults his captain as he “knows the club inside out”, the midfielder insists his focus is on adding to his success on the pitch.

Mulgrew adds: “I already want my 12th title.”

(Top photo: Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)