Mary Earps leaves the public in shock after her International Retirement decision shortly before the European Championships

✍️Nancy Paisey

Well-loved England goalkeeper Mary Earps has announced her retirement from international football not long before this year’s European Championship in Switzerland..

📸via Sky News

Since 2017, Mary Earps has played for the Lionesses managing to gain herself 53 caps. She was often remarked as one of the best goalkeepers in the world and won the title of Best Women’s Goalkeeper by FIFA in both 2022 and 2023.

With 26 clean sheets for England, Earps aided the Lionesses towards their Euros win in 2022, and silver medal in the 2023 World Cup. She also won the FIFA Women’s World Cup golden glove in 2023 with 3 clean sheets across the whole tournament.

In Earps’ retirement post, she stated that it has been “the greatest honour and privilege of [her] life to wear this badge and represent [her] country”, and that “all good things must come to an end.” This post on Earps’ Instagram was largely unexpected, but could be partially ruled down to her often not starting with the place being given to Hannah Hampton. Earps even stated that “this is the right time for me to step aside and give the younger generation an opportunity to thrive.”

Phil Neville was head coach for the Lionesses for a large part of Earps’ international career but kept her as a third choice goal keeper before dropping her completely. This led her to consider retirement in 2019 as she thought she would never be called up for a major tournament again. However, when Sarina Wiegman took over in 2021, Earps said that her life changed completely since she felt Sarina understood her. Wiegman stated this morning that she had “hoped Mary would play an important role within the squad” for this summer’s Euros and that she is largely disappointed. Wiegman gave Mary many opportunities allowing her to become a versatile and robust goalkeeper.

Considering all of this, England now lack any experienced goalkeepers other than Hannah Hampton. This is far from a good situation just weeks before the Euros begin. Both Khiara Keating and Anna Moorhouse have been called up for the past two camps, but still have not played in games at an international, senior level. This could perhaps result in Ellie Roebuck being called back up to the squad after playing a season with Barcelona. However, Roebuck only played two games during the whole campaign meaning that she lacked minutes and didn’t get enough time to prove herself.

Earps is now turning her full focus on PSG and is eager to play for many more years as women’s football in France is a fast growing concept.