Mary Earps has made the shock decision to retire from international football with immediate effect. She was part of the side that won Euro 2022 on home soil and reached the World Cup final in Australia a year later.
In a post on Instagram on Tuesday morning, Earps said: “It has been the greatest honour and privilege of my life, to wear this badge and represent my country. I wish I could do it forever, but sadly all good things must come to an end.
The timing will certainly come as a surprise, just as England’s players meet up for their Nations League games against Portugal and Spain and just 39 days before they begin the defence of the European Championship against France.
Difficult beginnings on international stage
Earps gained her first senior international call-up in April 2014 for a World Cup qualifier against Montenegro. However, she did not get called up again until September 2015 and was fourth choice goalkeeper for Euro 2017.
She had to wait until June 2017- over three years after her first call-up, to actually make her senior England debut, a 4-0 win over Switzerland, where she came on as a substitute on 75 minutes to replace Karen Bardsley.
Her first start eventually came in a victory over Kazakhstan in September 2018. She was named in the squad for the 2019 World Cup, although she did not feature in any of England’s seven matches as they secured third place.
Making the most of her opportunity
The appointment of Sarina Weigman in 2021 proved to be a massive turning point in Earps’ international career as she was named as the first choice goalkeeper in Weigman’s first game in charge- an 8-0 win over North Macedonia.
She played every minute of Euro 2022 as England won the tournament on home soil, beating Germany 2-1 in the final at Wembley. She also played every game at the following year’s World Cup as England again reached the final. Earps won the Golden Glove in both tournaments.
Her increased profile meant her impact was felt off the pitch as well as on it. This was famously shown ahead of the 2023 World Cup when she openly criticised Nike for the fact it was not possible to buy goalkeeper shirts ahead of the tournament as they had not been manufactured. Nike eventually backtracked on this and they quickly sold out.
Individual honours also followed. In 2023, she won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, making her the second successive female footballer to win the prestigious award after Beth Mead.Â
What will Earps’ England legacy be? Â
Over the course of her international career, she won 53 caps. Without doubt the high point came in 2022 and 2023 when she made 33 of those appearances and was the undisputed number one. However, more recently she has lost her starting place to Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton.
At the same time, she was equally successful at domestic level, winning the Women’s Super League Golden Glove in 2023 while at Manchester United. The same year she was named in the WSL Team of the Year and England’s Player of the Year.
The announcement of her retirement from international football aged 32 has certainly caused plenty of surprise from women’s football fans, with the timing just a few weeks before the European Championship has certainly proved to be a talking point.
It is to her credit to her persistence that she kept working to establish herself as England’s first choice keeper given the difficult beginnings she had after her first callup. For a couple of years England were the best team in the world, and Earps was a key part of that.