There is a saying that ‘goalkeepers are crazy’, however, Earps is the exception. She’s a superb footballer, a savvy operator, and a rebel.
All goalkeepers are rebels. They’re the footballers who, arguably, can’t play football; though that doesn’t diminish their skills, or supremely vital role in a football team. They’re the coxswain who operates the whole team from the very back, steering and encouraging.
Mary Earps is a winner. She’s collected a winner’s medal in the UEFA Women’s Euro 22 competition and was named in the ‘Team of the Tournament’, she was awarded the Golden Glove for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament in 2023, after England’s defeat by Spain in the final, while earlier that year, she saved a penalty in a shootout against Brazil, helping England to triumph in the inaugural Women’s Finalissima, an intercontinental cup competition, organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested between the winners of the Copa América Femenina and UEFA Women’s Championship.
Advocate
Away from the pitch, she’s also become seen as a persuasive advocate and role model for women’s sport. For instance, during the build-up to the World Cup, Earps publicly complained that there was no replica shirt with her name on it, taking on Nike, the most influential sports brand in the world, in the process.
Earps heard about the kit problem in April 2023, months before the World Cup but after much “fighting behind closed doors”, including a proposal to pay for the production of the kits herself, Nike relented and committed to making replica shirts for girls and women. Even so, and despite support from the Football Association (FA), Nike was only moved to do so after the World Cup and Earps’ enormous success. Earps produced her own limited edition T-shirts for fans to wear weeks earlier, during the tournament.
Later in 2023, Earps was announced as the winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award and presented with an MBE in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to football.
Born in Nottingham, Earps signed briefly for Leicester City before moving to Nottingham Forest and making just four appearances for the club in the 2010 – 2011 season. Nevertheless, she progressed at several other clubs and between 2019 and 2024 appeared over 100 times for Manchester United, before moving to her current club, Paris Saint-Germain. Earps has also represented England at U17, U19 and U23 level, making her senior debut in 2017. She played every minute of England’s successful 2022 Euros campaign and likewise in all seven games during the 2023 World Cup and was named England Women’s Player of the Year for the 2022–23 season.
Change
Football has changed, and Nottingham has changed. Football was once a male, working class preserve but has now expanded to become far more diverse. It’s a good thing that rainbow scarves are now on sale at The City Ground but if there is a downside of this success, it is perhaps that the game, once rooted in working class culture, may well have left other parts of the community behind. It’s well known that The City Ground is a ‘cashless’ environment – and let’s be realistic, those are generally places for people who don’t need to know how far into their overdraft they are. But that’s really for another blog, concerning class and the cost of living.
Anyway, one day, very soon, women’s footballers won’t be regarded as rebels. That’s what’s known as an ‘endgame’ – a very rare and rebellious thing indeed. Earps has played an important part in that rebellious journey.
Once said: “Keep going, you can achieve anything you set your mind to. Sometimes success looks like this, collecting trophies, sometimes it’s just waking up and putting one step in front of the other. There’s only one of you in the world, and that’s more than enough. Be unapologetically yourself.”
Brief summary: Earps is right up there with the best of Nottingham’s sporting greats. What’s more, she’s become an important and iconic figure by daring to challenge the status quo.
Nottingham Rebels 