Mary Earps made indelible mark with England and leaves big gloves to fill | Suzanne Wrack | OneFootball

The news of Mary Earps’s retirement from international football has been met with a cacophony of views, ranging from shock and disappointment to sadness and anger.

That the decision to step away has prompted such emotional responses, coming less than six weeks before the first game of England’s European Championship defence, is a testament to her popularity and the standing she has in the game.

Earps’s international career has been a rollercoaster, which hit a low when she was dropped by Phil Neville in March 2020. The goalkeeper thought it was a one‑off, that she would be back, but she was omitted from the next squad, then the next, and it was not until Sarina Wiegman arrived as head coach that things took an upward turn. In that year away from the international game she thought she would never pull on the shirt again, and that took an emotional and mental toll.

No one, least of all Earps, could have predicted what would lie ahead. Injuries to Karen Bardsley and Ellie Roebuck opened the door for Earps to start under Wiegman and she grabbed the opportunity. She went from third-choice goalkeeper at the 2019 World Cup in France and out in the cold in 2020 to the No 1 for the Lionesses at the home Euros in 2022.

Her rise to prominence during a phenomenal run to a first major international title for the senior women’s side was staggering. Fun and personable, her iconic hip swinging on the table after the players crashed Wiegman’s post-match press conference following the Euro 2022 final thrust her personality to the fore.

With the spotlight comes responsibility and Earps rose to it, becoming a vocal and passionate advocate for goalkeeping and goalkeeper coaching, speaking candidly about the lack of proper coaching available to her generation of keepers for much of their careers and supporting efforts to increase the popularity of the position.

Then, there was the challenging of the England sponsors Nike on the eve of the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. When asked about the lack of availability of replica women’s goalkeeper kits, she paused, clearly emotional and weighing up whether it was the right time to speak out, before launching into an impassioned plea for the sportswear giant to make a U-turn on their decision to not sell the kits. She said: “I can’t really sugarcoat this in any way, so I am not going to try. It is hugely disappointing and very hurtful.” She forced change in the months that followed.

At that World Cup Earps shone on the pitch, collecting the Golden Glove after England endured heartbreak, losing 1-0 against Spain in the final. She earned the nickname “queen of stops” and footage of her expletive‑laden reaction after saving a penalty to keep the deficit to a single goal went viral.

She was named Fifa’s best women’s goalkeeper in 2022 and 2023 for those tournament heroics and won BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2023.

Her popularity has been enhanced by her social media presence, particularly on TikTok. Meanwhile, she became the first women’s football player to have a waxwork at Madame Tussauds having won a public vote. She also launched her own line of T-shirts inspired by her speech when she won her first Fifa award in 2022, dedicating the win to “anyone who’s ever been in a dark place” before saying: “You can achieve anything you set your mind to. Sometimes success looks like this – collecting trophies – sometimes it’s just waking up and putting one step in front of the other. There’s only one of you in the world, and that’s more than good enough. Be unapologetically yourself.”

In recent months Earps has found her playing time with England reduced, with Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton preferred to the goalkeeper capped 53 times. It is a widely held view that Hampton is better with the ball at her feet, which suits the way England want to play, building out from the back. However, whether the talented 24-year-old, who has performed exceptionally well for Chelsea this season, will be able to match the stage presence, confidence and output of Earps on the biggest international stages remains to be seen.

Earps’s international retirement comes as a shock, but it is understood to be something she has been considering and discussing with Wiegman for some time. The timing of the announcement, so soon before the European Championship, is unusual, and many would have liked to see the senior stateswoman steer England’s young keepers through the tournament. The reasons for the decision and its timing will no doubt come out in the future; what we can take some time to do now is appreciate and reflect on Earps’s commitment, passion and energy in an England shirt.

Header image: [Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian]