When she was a little girl, Mary Earps was aware that her love of football marked her out as different from the other children. ‘While the girls at my junior school played netball or hockey, all I wanted to do was play football and I played on the boys’ team, something no girl had ever done before,’ Earps tells me. ‘My parents and teachers were supportive. But a few of the other parents had something to say about it, like, “Why are you letting Mary play football?” I was conscious I had to fight for something and aware I was doing something out of the ordinary.’
This trailblazing continued. In the summer of 2022, Earps became one of the breakout stars of the Women’s Euro victory, and again in 2023, when England reached the Women’s World Cup final (they lost to Spain). Both tournaments were turning points for the women’s game, and thrust it – and Earps – on to the world stage. Such was Mary-fever that when Nike initially chose not to sell an Earps replica goalkeeper T-shirt in the run-up to the 2023 World Cup (despite selling replicas of England men’s goalie Jordan Pickford’s shirt), a petition demanding one quickly gained more than 150,000 signatures – and a U-turn by Nike. Later that year, she was named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
But this May, in the kind of surprising move we’re more used to seeing on the pitch, the 32-year-old announced her retirement from international football (she still plays club football for the French team Paris Saint- Germain) ahead of the 2025 Women’s Euro, which kicked off on 2 July.
‘I have taken the difficult decision to retire internationally,’ she posted on Instagram on 27 May, calling the chance to play for England ‘the greatest honour and privilege of my life’. She later said it was the right time ‘to step aside and give the younger generation an opportunity to thrive’.
‘Of course it’s been an emotional time,’ she tells me when we speak. ‘It wasn’t an easy decision to make. It’s been really difficult and emotional. There was a lot of consideration, a lot of conversations and a lot of heartache. But it felt like the right decision at the right time. There were a few reasons behind my decision, and I know a lot of people don’t necessarily understand it, but I think they will in time.’ Right now, she says, she wants the focus to be not on her retirement, but on the upcoming Women’s Euro.
Some football pundits and columnists criticised the move, which they believe is the result of Lioness manager Sarina Wiegman replacing Earps in this summer’s starting line-up with 24-year-old Chelsea goalie Hannah Hampton, who used to be Earps’ understudy. Some pointed out her retirement means Wiegman’s squad is now missing an experienced goalkeeper to mentor Hampton through the pressure of a big tournament or a (famously formidable) spare pair of hands if she’s injured.
Earps says the criticism she’s faced has been difficult, ‘including the narrative that “Mary’s made the best decision for herself.” Some people think I’m the bad guy. Social media is a hard place to be at times, but that comes with the territory of having a job that’s public facing. You have to take it on the chin.’
Not being a football pundit, I admire Earps for making a decision that, while undoubtedly difficult, was the right one for her – and I tell her so. After all, who hasn’t left a job or relationship for reasons that feel right to us, but that others struggle to understand? When Earps made her shock announcement, fellow Lioness Jess Carter said of her, ‘The bravery that she has to have stayed true to herself and made the decision to leave, I think we forget that this is such a tough job to do. Sometimes it’s not just about the team, it’s also about you. I really wish her all the best.’
Earps says the other Lionesses have also been supportive. ‘The girls have been so brilliant and so understanding. I flew in [from Paris] to see them and they were amazing and gave me the best team send-off I could have asked for. I’m now looking forward to watching them head into this really big tournament. They’re a bloody great team and, I know I’m biased, but I believe they’re going to win the thing.’
She says it will be a different experience watching an England game from the stands ‘but I will try to make it to as many of the games as possible’. She’s also looking forward to focusing on her club career and having more free time, and tells me this is the first time in her career that she’s had more than 12 consecutive days off. ‘It’s given me the opportunity to be physically and mentally rested.’
The day England won the Women’s Euro in 2022 remains the best day of Earps’ life. The late Queen sent the team a message call- ing them ‘an inspiration’, Ian Wright said, ‘This is the proudest I’ve ever felt of any England side,’ while Prince William called their win ‘history in the making’.
‘I was on cloud nine,’ Earps says, ‘living a reality I could never have imagined as a schoolgirl. But while I thought winning trophies would be the best thing, what mattered more was the systemic change that took place in women’s football afterwards. The Lionesses showed girls you can be whoever you want to be and that there’s nothing wrong with being a strong and powerful woman.
‘Just like we stood on the shoulders of the female players who came before us, the Lionesses changed the condition of women’s football for the next generation. That’s been my proudest achievement. As much as I want to be remembered for being a fantastic goal-keeper, the biggest compliment you could pay me is that I’ve left the game in a better place than I found it.’
Earps grew up in West Bridgeford in Nottingham with her parents and younger brother, and signed with Doncaster at 18. She studied business at Loughborough University, graduating in 2016, and straight out of university was offered a football contract that, while not as lucrative as the men’s game, was the same as a graduate salary. ‘For the first time, I thought maybe I could pursue football as a profession,’ she says. She played for several teams, including Manchester United and Nottingham Forest, and won her first cap for England in 2017.
So, what’s next? ‘I want to play for as long as possible and keep going until my body says stop. I want to win more trophies, break down more boundaries and keep pushing the women’s game forward. Off the pitch I want to take my clothing line, MAE27, to another level, and spend more time with friends and family. Normal stuff, I suppose.’
She also wants to make goalkeeping cool. Earlier this year, in the BBC documentary Mary Earps: Queen Of Stops, she said she knew she wanted to be a goalkeeper from her very first game. ‘For me, it’s the hardest position on the pitch,’ she says. ‘It’s high pressure, high criticism and it’s an individual sport within a team sport. If somebody scores a goal, everybody runs off celebrating. If you make a save, it’s expected. But I think goal- keeping is an art. When I chat to kids about being a goalkeeper, I say it’s like being a superhero. You have to dive, be athletic and strong and put your body into all sorts of positions. If there were a film about goalkeepers, we’d be played by Superman. Or Superwoman.'
PHOTOGRAPHER: Serena Brown
STYLIST: Michelle Duguid
HAIR: Jack Luckhurst
MAKEUP: Hollie Flynn