How Mary Earps ‘got up off the kitchen floor’ to win BBC Spoty

There was a moment on Tuesday night when Mary Earps, stood next to the glistening trophy having been crowned the Queen of British sport for 2023, realised she could not bring herself to look her parents in the eye because of the emotions that came flooding back.

In that instant, during the most celebratory seconds of her career so far, came a reminder of their support on her path to winning the nation’s hearts that has been intertwined with, in her own words, some “really, really not so great times”.

Earps is regarded by the millions of new women’s football fans as the penalty-saving, expletive-shouting, social media sensation with more than one million TikTok followers who, along her England team-mates won Euro 2022 and reached this year’s World Cup final, and who forced sportswear giant Nike into a U-turn over selling her women’s goalkeeper kits.

Yet her journey to BBC Sports Personality of the Year is a comeback that did not seem remotely feasible merely two-and-a-half years ago. Before England’s resurgence under Sarina Wiegman, Earps found herself resigned to the idea she would never play for her country again.

In the wake of 2019’s World Cup, she started in a friendly at Wembley against Germany, in line for the No 1 shirt for the foreseeable future. But Earps was suddenly left out of then-England head coach Phil Neville’s squad for the 2020 SheBelieves Cup and then – after the gap in fixtures in the pandemic – was also omitted from the Lioness’s squad in February 2021 by interim manager Hege Riise. It would be almost two years without playing for the national team before Wiegman recalled her in September 2021 and changed her life.

It is during that time in the international football wilderness that Earps has spoken about being in a “dark place”, saying, when collecting her Fifa Best Goalkeeper of the Year prize in February 2023: “Thank you so much to my loved ones who have picked me up off the kitchen floor to be here today, not specifically tonight, but a few years ago. This [award] is for anyone who has ever been in a dark place – just know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Be unapologetically yourself.”

One source told Telegraph Sport that what Earps went through in those times was ‘deeply personal’ and private to the 30-year-old, and the exact nature of Earps’ low points is not something she has yet elaborated on specifically.

But when asked about the moment in her life backstage at Tuesday’s Spoty ceremony, the World Cup Golden Glove award winner said: “I made my peace with the fact I would never be an England player again. That was where it was for me. It was the facts. It took a while for me to come to terms with that.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow when it’s all you’ve ever dreamed of. Sometimes you give it your all and you’re just not quite good enough but luckily Sarina Wiegman came in and saw things in me that I didn’t see in myself. I didn’t know how long it would be [for] at that point so I’m just so glad she gave me a chance. I want to keep going for as long as I can.”

Since getting that chance, Earps has grabbed it with both hands and shows no sign of letting go, reaping the rewards for a long and well-travelled career that saw her play for clubs including Doncaster Rovers Belles, Birmingham City and Bristol City, before she moved to Germany for a season at Wolfsburg that would greatly aid her transformation between the sticks.

Now on the front pages of UK newspapers and on top of the sporting world, she insists she won’t stop until she has a full trophy cabinet. “I want to win the lot,” she said on Tuesday night. “One day it would be my absolute dream to win the Champions League and the World Cup, that would be amazing.”

The immediate follow-up question was, naturally, for which club does she foresee herself to be playing when she makes that bid for Champions League glory, following an autumn where her future at current club Manchester United was the subject of much speculation. Earps’ current contract expires next summer and she was the target of a transfer bid from Arsenal during the World Cup, which United rejected. Her club are understood to have said Earps was simply not for sale.

“It’s a great question,” Earps said. “I don’t really want to talk too much about it tonight because I want to celebrate this win but what I will say is there is a lot of stuff that’s been put out there that isn’t true. I’ve remained quiet for a reason. I feel I’ve behaved really professionally and with a lot of integrity through this whole situation. What I will say is that I play with heart and passion in everything I do and I drive standards.

“A lot of stuff that’s been put out isn’t 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 a lot of things that are not right. I think it’s an injustice but I know the appropriate thing to do is focus on my football and see what happens from there.”

Earps did not specify what she was referring to as factual inaccuracies, but her words came after reports said she had wanted to leave United. What is clear is that, whoever she is playing for in the future, their commercial gains could be almost as significant as the talent she provides between the sticks. Having been voted by the public to win the most prestigious annual ‘sports personality’ award and with Nike promising her to never omit her shirt from their sales again, the age of Mary, Queen of Stops may be only just beginning.