ST GALLEN – Mary Earps likes to visualise women’s football as a high-speed train. “You have to either get on it – or get out.”
Long before becoming a European champion or World Cup finalist, the former England stopper was on a mission to make goalkeeping cool.
Perhaps more than any other player in the women’s or men’s game, she changed perceptions of her position and inspired thousands of young girls to follow in her footsteps.
“I think how I’d like to be remembered is I gave my heart and soul on and off the pitch,” Earps tells The i Paper.
“I gave everything I possibly could to the team and hopefully, people will say that I left the shirt in a better place than I found it, left the game in a better place.
“If I can be remembered as one of the greats then that’s fantastic, but hopefully people can remember me as a good person, as someone who worked exceptionally hard for the team.
“That’s how I’d like to be remembered, but that’s not in my control! That’s up to other people.
“I gave absolutely everything, I’m so proud of everything we achieved as a team in that time and I’m looking forward to the Lionesses going on to even more success in the coming years.”
I speak to Earps in Switzerland, where she is getting ready to watch the Lionesses’ final group match against Wales.
She is working with Seehergame and Play on Pitch to promote the visibility of women’s sport and encourage more girls to play football.
Earps has been asked alongside the likes of Alexia Putellas and Lucy Bronze; she jokes it “would never have happened five years ago – goalkeeping just wasn’t cool enough”.
It is because of the work of England’s Euro 2022 winners that the generations who come after them have grassroots clubs to join, football in PE at school and replica kits to buy – Earps publicly called out Nike for not producing women’s goalkeeper shirts at the 2023 World Cup.
“I definitely hope I’ve played a small part in the journey of making it better,” she says.
“Better conditions for the next generation and the younger players and goalkeepers coming through. I’ve stood on the shoulders of those that have come before me and hopefully the younger players can stand on my shoulders.
“It’s a lot of work and it’s definitely a team effort in terms of bringing that [the progress in women’s football] together, but if I’ve played a small part in that then I’ll be very proud.”
Goalkeeping, she concedes, can be a “lonely position”.
It remains important to her that as well as encouraging grassroots football across the board, that “goalkeeping is visible”.
“It’s a really important part of the team. Of course I think it’s the hardest position on the pitch… but I am biased in that.”
Last season proved to be a life-changing one for the former Manchester United goalkeeper.
In the summer of 2024, she moved abroad for the second time, joining Paris Saint-Germain having spent an earlier stint of her career at Wolfsburg in Germany.
Then, in May, she made the shock announcement that she was retiring from the international game.
It prompted a backlash which Earps later said left her feeling “villainised”, because of how close it came to the Euros.
“At the time it was super emotional and there’s a lot to it that I’ve not spoken about,” Earps says.
“Now my biggest reflection is knowing that I made the best decision with the right intentions in the right moment and being really grateful for the England career that I’ve had and looking forward to the future.
“I didn’t know how this tournament [Euro 2025] was going to be. In all honesty, I was like ‘I don’t know how I’m going to feel’, but I’ve genuinely just been full of pride and full of joy watching, knowing the girls so closely and feeling so connected to them through all the memories and all the things that we’ve been through.”
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Yet Earps is conscious not to detract from the current squad, who lost their opening game to France before surging to a 4-0 victory over the Netherlands.
She was cheering from the stands as they booked their place in the last eight with a 6-1 victory over Wales.
“You saw in the performance against the Netherlands what an exceptional team they are,” she says.
“How they came together and really galvanised, and that spirit, you’re going to see that more and more as the tournament goes on. They’re such an exceptionally talented team. The first game was difficult, you could see how disappointed the girls were in terms of it not quite coming off.
“The second game was a real testament to them as a team. I thought they were immense. They really dominated the game and I think that will continue as the tournament goes on.
“Sometimes that’s a really helpful moment, even though it doesn’t feel good at the time, they really bounced back and kicked on and I think that’s a really impressive sign of things to come.
“They’ve got a lot of experience in the group, a really nice balance of youthful energy and experienced heads. They’ll just fly from this moment forward.”
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