HOW MARY EARPS’ ILL-JUDGED BOOK TURNED FOOTBALL AGAINST HER
Mary Earps was once celebrated as England’s golden girl.
She was a key member of the Lionesses team who were victorious at Euro 2022, ending the country’s 56-year wait for a trophy, and famously crashed manager Sarina Wiegman’s press conference by dancing on her table.
Her stock rose even higher when she starred at the World Cup in 2023. Not only did she gain popularity for her performances, which included a memorable penalty save in the final against Spain, she also forced kit manufacturer Nike into an about-turn after they had originally decided not to put her goalkeeper shirt on sale to the public.
Earps endeared herself to the nation by wearing her heart on her sleeve – she has long lived by the maxim of being “unapologetically yourself” – while her foul-mouthed outcry of “f--- off” after she had saved that memorable penalty went viral and was later printed on to T-shirts.
Her popularity was clear at the end of 2023 when she was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the first goalkeeper to ever win the award. Less than two years later and she is no longer held in the same esteem.
Her dramatic rise to prominence makes her rapid fall from grace all the more remarkable.
First, Earps quit the national team five weeks before the start of last summer’s European Championship after being told she was no longer the first-choice goalkeeper.
The Lionesses went on to win the tournament without her while her replacement, Hannah Hampton, played a starring role.
Now, Earps has hit out at both Hampton and England manager Sarina Wiegman in her autobiography All In: Football, Life and Learning to be Unapologetically Me.
The book is released on Thursday but extracts have been published in The Guardian. Earps alleges Hampton was dropped from the England team in 2022 for being “disruptive”.
She writes: “We came back together to the news that Hannah Hampton had been dropped from the squad: her behaviour behind the scenes at the Euros had frequently risked derailing training sessions and team resources.”
Wiegman brought Hampton back into the England squad in the spring of 2023, but Earps says she made it clear she was not comfortable with this decision.
Earps had an even bigger problem when Wiegman began to give Hampton more opportunities in matches at the start of 2024. When Wiegman said she was going to give Hampton her first competitive start against the Republic of Ireland in the April of that year, Earps says she told the manager: “I don’t get it. It’s a qualifier match and bad behaviour is being rewarded.”
Hampton eventually usurped Earps as the No 1 goalkeeper in April 2025, which led to the latter’s shock retirement. Earps writes in her book that she believes Wiegman had made her decision long before that and described her handling of the situation as “bull----”.
She writes: “I told her I wasn’t surprised by what she’d just said, that it had been a long time coming, but I felt extremely disappointed nonetheless. Then I said: ‘I just think you could have been more direct and honest from the jump’.
“She wasn’t happy with that. ‘No, I don’t think that’s fair. I always communicate openly. We’ve only just made this decision,’ she cut in. That sounded like bull---- to me.”
Speak to anyone in women’s football about the fallout from the autobiography and they will tell you the same thing: Earps has got this spectacularly wrong.
Since the publication of the extracts, Earps has attempted to backtrack. She did interviews with the BBC and Talksport on Monday and claimed the comments she made about Hampton and Wiegman have been distorted and taken out of context.
Meanwhile, pre-recorded interviews have continued to drop left, right and centre. With each one, the reaction of figures in the industry has been more incredulous. Sources have described Earps as having “main character syndrome” while others simply see it all as “me, me, me”.
Fara Williams, Earps’s former England team-mate, is one of the few figures to have spoken publicly and described her comments as “baffling”.
Writing in her column for TNT Sports, Williams said: “I honestly didn’t like Mary’s comments about Hannah. It’s quite baffling to see Mary come out publicly and talk about a former international team-mate in this way.
“Looking back at the way her retirement played out, I was expecting something to come out eventually. It was bound to happen when you consider a player as popular as Mary to retire on the eve of a major tournament, although I couldn’t have predicted Mary to talk about Hannah in the way she did, because you need to respect your team-mates, whether you like them or not.”
This is also the view of sources close to the Lionesses. There is still lingering resentment at the way Earps went about her retirement, which came just weeks before the Euros and was viewed by some as an attempt to unsettle Hampton and the wider squad. But there is now even greater anger at how Hampton has been dragged through the mud and the public airing of the pair’s dirty laundry.
Earps claimed in her interview with the BBC that she had not written the book to “tear anyone down” and has insisted there is no bad blood between her and her former team-mate. But people have seen through this. Williams makes the point that Earps would have known that her quotes on Wiegman and Hampton would make headlines and the wider view is: what was she expecting?
What everyone within the game seems to agree on is that she has been massively let down by the PR team behind her. Putting Earps up for more media since the backlash has only served to pour petrol on the flames rather than act as damage control.
Respected people in the industry are astounded by the countless mistakes that have been made and while there has been much criticism of Earps, there is also concern for her welfare.
She fought back tears in her interview with Talksport and looked equally emotional when she spoke to the BBC. It is understandable she wants to change the narrative, but the more she talks, the worse it gets.
Many believe she needs to be taken out of the spotlight for her own well-being.
In stark contrast, those advising Hampton are clearly doing a better job. The Chelsea goalkeeper gave an interview to Glamour magazine last week after being named as their Woman of the Year.
Earps presented Hampton with the best goalkeeper award at the Ballon d’Or in September, with the Chelsea goalkeeper telling the publication it was a “lovely moment”.
Hampton said: “She’d pushed so much for that award, and she pushed for the women’s game and for women’s goalkeeper to be seen and recognised.
“Everything she’s done for the England game and women’s football in general is something I’ve wanted to continue and build on. I’ve got big shoes and big gloves to fill. I’m trying my hardest. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the standard she was at, but it was a lovely thing that she was able to be there.”
None of the current Lionesses has spoken publicly about Earps’s book, but Millie Bright, who retired from international duty last month, is due to release her podcast Daly Brightness with fellow former England player Rachel Daly on Thursday. Bright is Hampton’s Chelsea team-mate and captain but is also a long-time friend of Earps. Sonia Bompastor, the Chelsea manager, was heavily critical of Earps and accused her of disrespect, so it will be intriguing to see whether Bright makes any mention of the autobiography this week.
While many viewed Earps’s retirement as selfish, she still had goodwill in some quarters of the England camp and the wider women’s game. But that is quickly evaporating. While no one can take her achievements on the pitch away from her, many view the damage that has been done to her reputation in the last few days as irreversible. The best thing she can do right now is to take herself out of the firing line.
Luke Edwards
Mary Earps needs saving from herself in desperate effort to remain relevant
2025-11-04T12:50:58Z