“It’s a blessing and a curse,” says Mary Earps. “Naturally when you get named the Fifa Best goalkeeper, expectations do raise, and especially when you do it twice. People expect more of you.”
That is a pressure the England international, who joined Paris Saint-Germain in the summer at the end of her contract at Manchester United, deals with on a daily basis. But she does not want that to change. “It is a massive compliment but you do get criticised more and held to a higher standard than what other people do,” she says. “Then the extraordinary is expected. But, the reality of it is that I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’m really grateful for everything that I’ve achieved and the exciting thing for me is that I still feel like I’ve got room for improvement.”
Eyes are on Earps, who moved to France after five years in Manchester. Her new journey hit a first big bump when the French side failed to reach the group stage of the Champions League, losing 5-2 to Juventus on aggregate in the second round of qualifying. “I can’t really put it any other way than it was gutting,” she says. “Especially with that being a massive factor into why I made the move to Paris. It was unfortunate, the way it happened. I think, in all honesty, we didn’t play our best and we got what we deserved, but it was just really unfortunate and is really hard to get past.”
The words “gutting”, “disappointing” and “unfortunate” feature numerous times in a lengthy answer laced with all three in tone as well as content. Earps says there is “nothing we can do about it now, we can only go forward and improve”, but the pain of the exit is still evident.
“New players and a new coach, those things are going to take time to kind of come together and I think you could see that in the way that we played a little bit,” she says. “We just need a little bit more time together and it’ll click. As the season has gone on you can see that in the results and the performances. Since then, it’s been steadily improving.”
Champions League football was not the only reason Earps chose PSG following her contract expiration, after two years of will-she-won’t-she talk. “It was down to the feeling I had and the conversations that I was having,” she says. “I felt like the way that the club wanted to kick on and the ambitions and vision that they set out, for me, they were very clear and unapologetic about wanting to be the best on and off the pitch. Now, granted, that’s not going to happen overnight.”
Earps is one of the most recognisable faces of English football, mainly because of her achievements on the pitch, winning Euro 2022 and reaching the World Cup final with the Lionesses a year later, but also for hitting out at the sports manufacturer Nike for not making her England replica shirt available for sale after the World Cup. She has also won over fans with some sweary on-pitch rants.
She had become synonymous with United, joining the club only a year after the women’s team were formed. She grew as a player, as did the team and they finished second in the WSL in 2023 and won the FA Cup the following year. However, six weeks later she released a statement saying she was leaving because “the club is about to undergo a period of transition, and unfortunately I don’t feel it aligns with the timing of where I’m at in my career”.
The 31-year-old admits now that the exit from United was a hugely challenging time. “It was difficult because I love the game so much and I also really have a lot of love for Manchester United,” she says. “I spent five years of my life and career there and careers are short. That is such a significant period of time and I felt like it was a significant development stage as well, to who I became as a player but also who I became as a person. So, now everything has settled, I can have such incredible memories and I’m really grateful. Quite a few Man United fans have come out to watch me in Paris, which is really cool. We have a bit of a chat on the side afterwards and we’re able to reminisce a little bit … it’s just nice to feel that connection because it was such a massive part of my life.”
Born in Nottingham, Earps represented West Bridgford before joining Leicester and then Tottenham. Her senior career has also taken in Doncaster Rovers Belles, Birmingham, Bristol Academy, Reading and, for one season, Wolfsburg, where she won the German league and cup double in 2019.
“Wolfsburg really kickstarted something in me,” she says. “I don’t know if it was moving away from home for the first time, I don’t know if it was being in a new culture. I think a lot of it was to do with the players that I was surrounded by and seeing the level that they operate at and what they did on a day-to-day basis, training at that level and things. I also got to experience, I don’t know how to describe it, a completely different way of doing things at Wolfsburg. It felt like they were a bit ahead of the time, of the WSL, but now other teams have caught up.
“The reality of it was that I didn’t play as much when I was in Germany. I was sitting behind who I consider the best goalkeeper in the world at the time, Almuth Schult. I played here and there and I would top up my minutes with England’s Under-23s and things like that.
“Don’t get me wrong, I got a number of games in the first team and loved it, but it wasn’t the consistent playing time that I would have enjoyed. I knew that when I was going there though, it was about growth and it was about staying there for a year and maxing out and seeing what happened. That gave me some time to think, ironically, because I wasn’t playing every week. It gave me time to do other things and figure things out. I had no idea that it would be so important. I brought that back with me. Playing for United consistently I was able to almost make conscious choices. I had a whole time to reflect for the first time in my career about who I wanted to be, it felt like I became a real adult.”
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Her second adventure abroad, at PSG, is where she feels she can reach the next level. “I don’t feel I’ve hit my maximum potential yet so it’s this constant thing of trying to push and get there,” says Earps, who feels that her understanding of French is improving but jokes that it takes “five to 10 days” to formulate a reply.
Domestically, in the rebranded Première Ligue, PSG are top after five wins in five games, two points ahead of their perennial rivals Lyon. Though pleased with how the season has started, Earps urges caution. “It’s really early. No one’s getting carried away with being top of the league,” she says. “We play Lyon as soon as we get back, but I think it’s a really positive start. Especially after the disappointment of going out of the Champions League. It’s nice to win five games out of five but we’re not satisfied with how we’re playing.”
At the moment she is with England, who have friendlies against Germany on Friday and South Africa on Tuesday as the buildup to Euro 2025 continues. These days, however, Earps’ starting position is far from secure with Hannah Hampton at her heels and ready to capitalise on any opportunity given her.
Earps is not perturbed by the pressure of young goalkeepers challenging her. She likes the fact that this generation has been given more opportunities from an early age. “I didn’t turn professional until 23 so I didn’t get regular goalkeeping training,” she says. “Even when I was at Reading, that was my first pro contract, there was periods where there wasn’t a goalkeeper coach or the goalkeeper coach can only come in at certain times in a week.
“We didn’t train every day either. I always say I’m in a beautiful position where I’ve been able to see the growth of the game, I’ve had the benefit of what the people before me did and the goalkeepers now have the benefit of what I’m doing and what my generation has done. It’s really nice to see the younger goalkeepers getting the opportunities that I didn’t get when I was younger.”
