For a player who relied on a second chance from England head coach Sarina Wiegman to set her career on the path to worldwide success and stardom, Mary Earps should be best placed to understand most what it’s like to be brought back in from the cold.
Surely in most walks of life, people should be given the opportunity to amend for past mistakes and given the chance to flourish in their chosen careers?
Which is why it makes Earps’ revealing comments in her soon-to-be-released autobiography ‘All In’, which lifts the lid on tensions with England No 1 Hannah Hampton, all the more surprising and disappointing and has led to a backlash on social media.
Earps said she felt Wiegman was “rewarding bad behaviour” for recalling Hampton. Hampton, then 21 years old, had been left out of the Lionesses squad post Euro 2022 glory for, according to Earps, “behaviour behind the scenes that had frequently risked derailing training sessions and team resources”.
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The Athletics’ Megan Feringa breaks down why former England goalkeeper Mary Earps has now decided to open up on the tension between her and former team mate Hannah Hampton.
Former Manchester United goalkeeper Earps, who joined PSG last summer, started to lose her grip on the England No 1 jersey last spring when Hampton was handed a start for a Euro 2025 qualifier against Sweden.
It didn’t go down well with Earps, the 32-year-old reveals in her book: “I don’t get it. It’s a qualifier match. And bad behaviour is being rewarded.”
Earps had already achieved exceptional success wearing the No 1 jersey.
From leading the gatecrashing of Wiegman’s post-match news conference post Euro 2022 success, dominating the shirt in the Lionesses’ run to the 2023 World Cup final, pulling off an exceptional penalty save in the final against Spain, winning the Golden Glove award and taking on the might of Nike by questioning why there wasn’t replica England goalkeeper jerseys available to buy.
Mary Earps played in every game as England won the Euro 2022 title
It culminated in her overwhelming victory of BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023. It really seemed that everything she touched turned to gold.
Yet Earps’ journey to one of the world’s best players and idolised by young girls around the country, would not have been possible without Wiegman’s backing and faith when she first took on the England job.
Earps had been dropped and subsequently frozen out by former England head coach Phil Neville in March 2020. It left Earps at her lowest ebb, and in a further extract from her book, which is being serialised by The Guardian, she reveals her struggles with food, alcohol and isolation during the Covid lockdowns.
Sarina Wiegman had faith in Mary Earps – when others including herself didn’t
It got to the point that Earps thought about quitting football such was her mental state.
Yet it was Wiegman who didn’t give up on Earps, ending her two years in the international wilderness by including her in her first England squad in September 2021.
At the time, Earps spoke of the “wild” turnaround. “It definitely feels different this time. I’m a little bit older and a bit more experienced. The experience that I went through taught me a lot of things, gave me a different perspective on a lot of things.”
Earps became an established, experienced member of Wiegman’s inner circle. That was until things started to change when she lost her grip on the England No 1 shirt and was informed that Hampton was “a little bit ahead of her” and would be her No 1 going forward.
It was a position she made her own at this summer’s Euro 2025 by producing her own Earps-esque performances – saving two penalties in a player-of-the-match showing in the final shoot-out as England defended their crown and wining the 2025 Yachine Trophy at the prestigious Ballon d’Or 2025 in September.
Hannah Hampton won the prize for best goalkeeper at the Ballon d’Or awards
Earps arguably should’ve been in Switzerland this summer, not only as back-up to Hampton but an experienced leader in the squad helping out the younger members. But she wasn’t.
Announcing her international retirement just five weeks before the tournament stung the squad to its core. On reflection, and now with Earps’ stinging comments, it probably made for a more harmonious squad but it still smacked of a player disgruntled with losing her place in the team.
Being a No 2 goalkeeper at any club is a difficult role to play, especially when you’ve climbed to the top of the tree but there will always be challenges and difficult personalities to navigate.
Hampton has so far kept her counsel in response to Earps’ explosive comments but her Chelsea manager, Sonia Bompastor, was quick to defend her No 1.
“I would also like to say it’s more about respect. With what I read in terms of the comments coming from Mary Earps, it’s not acceptable to not show respect to your team-mates or managers. We are talking about Hannah, but also I want to raise my voice for Sarina.
“When you use some words saying something about someone who won the Euros three times in a row, you should probably think about it before you speak. Hannah has been fine with us and all the club – myself, the staff and the players – are all behind her.”
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This is how Sky Sports’ Anton Toloui reported on Mary Earps’ shock retirement from international football five weeks ahead of the Euros this summer
Of course, to drive book sales, you would expect some spite, outspoken comments and the like from any autobiography – and Earps’ is clearly no different.
In the wake of her comments on Hampton and subsequent backlash on social media, Earps released a statement on Instagram saying she was being misrepresented and did not mean to “intentionally hurt” anyone. Yet few will sympathise given it is her autobiography, written in her own words, with the stories she wants to tell in order to get her side of matters across.
She wrote: “It’s not easy to be as vulnerable and open as I have been in the book, and I understand that my honesty and rawness will divide opinion. That’s ok, everyone is entitled to feel what they feel and I respect that.
“Things have escalated really quickly today, women pitted against each other. It’s gut-wrenching to be portrayed as someone you’re not.”
It comes of no surprise that there is animosity, and clashes in most football dressing rooms up and down the country. That’s sport.
It’s also good for the growth of women’s football to have competitiveness and rivalries – but not to cross a line.
Unfortunately, Earps, a role model for so many who has done so much to expand the audience of the game, has gone too far with her criticisms.
