How Mary Earps went from England outcast to national hero
Mary Earps thought she had played her last game for England in 2019, until Sarina Wiegman came in and changed it all.
Football
European Championships. Finalissima. FIFA The Best. World Cup final.
Five years ago, Mary Earps would never have thought those accolades were achievable.
Having started for the Lionesses at Wembley Stadium in a 2019 friendly against Germany, the Manchester United shot-stopper was convinced her international career was bound to kick on under the guidance of then-manager Phil Neville.
But when she was dropped from the squad in the following national window, it would signal the end of her international career after just eight appearances.
Earps struggled to find it in her to even continue the sport domestically.
“I got to a point where I felt I had sort of reached my limits,” she said.
“I had given football a good go, but wasn’t quite good enough.”
But England’s number one persisted, soon reaping the rewards of her patience, with Sarina Wiegman’s arrival.
The Dutch boss showed faith in the keeper and, soon enough, Earps’ return to the national team spurred the Lionesses on to statement victories and major trophies.
Now she and her teammates are on the brink of being immortalised, with a FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 final against Spain on Sunday (20 August).
How Earps’ England career was reignited
In September 2021, Sarina Wiegman was named as the new head coach of England.
Despite a healthy national team goalkeeping pool to choose from, she opted for a shot-stopper who had not graced the international scene since 2019: Mary Earps.
At Manchester United, the 29-year-old had gone from strength to strength, garnering the attention of Wiegman.
“The reality is my life before Sarina Wiegman and my life after Sarina Wiegman is totally different,” she told BBC Sport.
“I will always have the utmost respect and admiration for her. It’s about the way she has dealt with me, communicated with me and tried to get the best out of me.
“I had lost a lot of confidence and belief in myself before she came around; when she came in and picked me for the squad I just thought I’d go, do my best and have no expectations.
“The way it all went… I could never have written it in a million years.”
The first stop on her way to repaying the faith Wiegman showed in Earps was at the European Championships.
It is quite the story, really – in 2019, Earps played her last game for the Lionesses at that point in a 2-1 defeat to Germany.
In 2022, she won the Euros at Wembley with a 2-1 win over Germany, helping England to their first-ever major trophy.
In April of the following year, Wiegman’s side beat Brazil on penalties in the first edition of the Finalissima, with Earps playing a defining role in the shootout to lift their second successive piece of silverware.
Her whirlwind of a year was capped off when she was crowned FIFA’s The Best Goalkeeper for her contributions for club and country.
Now at Australia & New Zealand 2023, Earps and co are on the brink of winning football’s most prestigious prize: The World Cup.
The nation’s no.1 has already played a pivotal role in helping Wiegman’s side to the brink of history, with astonishing performances across the tournament including another crucial shootout against Nigeria in the Round of 16.
This is not a goalkeeper who has anything left to prove to anyone, but Earps winning the World Cup trophy would really cement her place as one of the greatest to play the game.