There was a moment on Tuesday night when Mary Earps, crowned 2023 British sports queen, stood next to the shining trophy and realized she didn’t dare look her family in the eyes because of the emotions that had returned.
In that moment, in the most celebratory moments of his career so far, came a reminder of their support in winning the heart of the nation, intertwined with, in his words, “really, really not-so-good times.” .
Earps is seen by millions of new female football fans as the penalty-saving, swearing-out social media influencer with more than a million TikTok followers who, along with her England teammates, won Euro 2022 and reached this year’s World Cup final. and the one who forced sportswear giant Nike to make a U-turn by selling women’s goalkeeper jerseys.
But his journey to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award is a comeback that seemed unlikely just two and a half years ago. Before England’s resurgence under Sarina Wiegman, Earps was resigned to the idea that he would never play for his country again.
After the 2019 World Cup, he played in a friendly against Germany at Wembley and played for the number 1 jersey of the near future. But the Earps were suddenly left out of England head coach Phil Neville’s 2020 SheBelieves Cup squad and were subsequently dropped from the Lioness squad by interim coach Hege Riise in February 2021 – after a gap in fixtures in the pandemic. It would be almost two years without Wiegman playing for the national team before they recalled him in September 2021 and turned his life around.
Earps spoke of being in a “dark place” during this period in the wilderness of international football, saying when accepting the Fifa Best Goalkeeper of the Year award in February 2023: He took me out of the kitchen to be here today, not specifically tonight but a few years ago. This [award] It is for anyone who has ever been in a dark place; Just know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Be unapologetically yourself.
A source told Telegraph Sport that the Earps’ experiences at the time were ‘deeply personal’ and special to the 30-year-old, and that the exact nature of the Earps’ low points is not something he has yet detailed specifically.
But when asked about that moment in his life backstage at Tuesday’s Spoty ceremony, the World Cup Golden Glove winner said: “I have made peace with the fact that I will never be an England player again. That was it for me. These were the facts. It took me a while to come to terms with this.
“It’s a hard pill to swallow when it’s all you’ve ever dreamed of. Sometimes you do your best and you’re not good enough, but luckily Sarina Wiegman came along and saw things in me that I couldn’t see in myself. I didn’t know how long it would take [for] I’m so glad he gave me a chance at that point. I want to continue as long as I live.”
Since getting the chance, the Earps have grabbed it with both hands and show no signs of letting go, reaping the rewards of a long and well-traveled career that has included appearances for clubs such as Doncaster Rovers Belles, Birmingham City and Bristol City. He moved to Germany to spend a season with Wolfsburg and this will greatly aid his transformation between the sticks.
Now on the front pages of UK newspapers and the talk of the sporting world, he insists he won’t stop until his trophy cabinet is full. “I want to win a lot,” he said Tuesday night. “My biggest dream would be to win the Champions League and the World Cup one day, it would be amazing.”
The immediate question, naturally, was which club he envisioned playing for when he bid for Champions League glory after an autumn in which his future at current club Manchester United was the subject of much speculation. Earps’ current contract expires next summer and he was the target of a transfer bid from Arsenal during the World Cup but United rejected it. It is understood his club has said the Earps are not for sale.
“That’s a great question,” Earps said. “I don’t want to talk too much about it tonight because I want to celebrate this win, but I will say that there are a lot of things that have been put out there that are not true. I’ve been quiet for a reason. I feel like I’ve acted really professionally and with great integrity throughout this whole situation. What I will say is , everything I do I do with heart and passion and I set standards high.
“A lot of the things that are being spread are not true. I want to say more but I can’t at this stage and it’s really hard for me to sit quietly when I see so many things that aren’t right. “I think it’s an injustice, but I know the right thing to do is to focus on my football and see what happens from there.”
Earps did not specify what he described as factual inaccuracies, but his remarks followed reports that he wanted to leave United. What is clear is that whoever he plays for in the future, his trade returns could be almost as important as the talent he provides between the sticks. Voted by the public to win the most prestigious annual ‘sports personality’ award and with Nike promising never to remove her shirt from sales again, the era of Mary, Queen of the Stalls, may be just beginning.