Kathmandu: Women’s football has a different level of energy. One who follows women’s football is astonished by the skills of women’s footballers for sure.

After Lionesses like Alex Scott, Rachel Yankey, and Kelly Smith, Mary Alexandra Earps has established herself as a prominent figure in English football. Earps is one of the finest English goalkeepers of the current generation.

At one time, Earps was once on the verge of quitting her football career. However, overcoming all the challenges, the same footballer shone with her skills and got a nickname “Mary Queen of Stops.” With her active presence in social media TikTok, she is also known as “TikTok Queen.”

Before diving into her nickname? Let’s look back at Earp’s football journey.

Earp’s Early Days

Earps was born on March 7 in 1993. The Nottingham-born footballer began playing football at the age of eight, joining her father and brother during their garden kickabouts.

Two years after she first began playing football with her family, Mary Earps took a more formal step into the game when the father of one of her school friends founded a local club called West Bridgford Colts. She joined the team and began playing as a goalkeeper.

Earps continued playing grassroots, or park football until the age of 14, when she successfully trialed for Leicester City’s Centre of Excellence. Her performance there earned her a spot in the youth setup, marking a significant step up in her football journey.

At 16, she moved to Nottingham Forest, but her stay was brief. Soon after, she signed for Doncaster Rovers Belles. At that time, Earps wasn’t earning a professional wage—she only received reimbursement for her expenses—and she was too young to drive herself to training and matches. As a result, she often relied on lifts from teammates. She has spoken in the past about one teammate who, incredibly, would drive from Southampton and pick her up en route.

During this busy time in her life, Earps was beginning her A-Level studies and juggling multiple part-time jobs. She worked at a cinema, a children’s toy store, held two different coaching roles, and also helped out in her father’s business, handling telesales.

At 17, she made her debut in the Women’s Super League (WSL) for Doncaster. After finishing school, she enrolled at Loughborough University, where she pursued a degree in Information Management and Business Studies between 2012 and 2016. Even while studying full-time, Earps remained active in football, playing for Birmingham City and later Bristol City.

In 2016, she signed with Reading, which became a turning point in her development—it was the first club where she received dedicated, full-time goalkeeper coaching.

Two years later, in 2018, she took her career abroad by joining VfL Wolfsburg, one of the top clubs in Germany’s Frauen-Bundesliga. After a year overseas, she returned to England to sign with Manchester United, further establishing herself in the domestic game.

Earps’ club career includes Nottingham Forest, Doncaster Rovers Belles, Birmingham City, Bristol Academy and Reading, Wolfsburg, Manchester United and currently in Paris Saint-Germain F.C (PSG).

Sarina Wiegman’s entry-Turning point of Earps’ career

Earps began her international career in U-19 at the 2012 UEFA Women’s U-19 Championship, in Antalya, Turkey, where she was praised for her performance despite of team’s group stage exit. It was a 4-0 friendly win over Switzerland.She was called up to training camp for UEFA Euro 2017 as a 4th choice goalkeeper in June 2017. Earps was included in the squad for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019.

However, despite making eight appearances for the Lionesses, she eventually fell out of favour and found herself left out of the national setup for some time.

In September 2020, she had hoped to be recalled to the England squad under then-manager Phil Neville. However, she was left out, with Carly Telford, Ellie Roebuck, Hannah Hampton, and Sandy MacIver chosen instead.

Reflecting on that moment, Earps shared that she broke down in her kitchen when she saw the squad announcement. She felt she had hit a wall in her football journey, thinking she’d given it her all but simply wasn’t good enough. With adult responsibilities like a mortgage weighing on her, she started to believe it might be time to move on from the sport.

However, her football career experienced a shift after the entry of a new football manager. Earps on September 17, 2021 named as starting goalkeeper in Sarina Petronella Wiegmans’s first game as England manager, where England beat North Macedonia as part of World Cup 2023 qualifying.

From being included as starting goalkeeper in Wiegman’s leadership, Earps’s rise in the national team began as Wiegman considered Earps a key player and preferred her as her first-choice goalkeeper since then. Even the Earps credit Wigeman’s leadership and support with reigniting her career and boosting her confidence. She even stated that her life had been drastically different before and after Wiegman became the manager.

Remained as Wiegman’s first-choice goalkeeper in eight of her first 11 matches, she was included in the squad for UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, where England became the champion of the Euros for the first time.

After winning the Euro, Earps danced on the table. As it was the third time that England bagged the title- 1984, 2009 and 2022. That for sure, required a historic celebration.

Remembering the days before Weigman’s arrival Earps said, ‘To be honest, I never thought I would get back to this point. I didn’t think I was even I was going to be in a squad for a major tournament again. Let alone playing the final against Germany at Wembley.’

Earps’ even went through the phase of down and reached her limits. She started develop the mindset that she was not good enough. It was not only a mental battle but also a battle for settlement. She had responsibility and mortgage to play. And decided to even contribute a couple of more years to football.

Despite all those physical, mental and financial challenges, Wiegman’s appointment, as the Headcoach of the England’s Women’s team in Spetember, 2021, became a boon for Earps. And her life changed in a snap of fingers. Earps’ got a mentor who knew who she was.

‘I felt like she understood where I came from. Like, a person having empathy for me as a human being. It was something that I’ve not experienced in football over the years. She changed my career, ‘ said Earps in an interview. She loved Wiegman’s directness and honesty. And with high morale and enthusiasm, Earp’s career began finding new challenges and opportunities.

Earps saved a penalty in a penalty shootout against Brazil, helping England to win the inaugural Women’s Finalissima. Included in the squad of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, where the Earps was awarded the Golden Glove in the tournament despite losing against Spain in the final.

In the World Cup 2023, England competed for the title against Spain. Though the team lost the match, Earps’ performance contributed to the team. She saved a penalty in the 69th minute in the final match.

Earp’s Teenage Struggle: Love for Sports

Earps discovered her love for goalkeeping when she saved a first penalty in her debut game. And he had a huge backup from her parents. Her parents even repeated a “typical parenting” encouraging statements like “…See if anyone else was in goal other than Mary, no one would have saved that…” At that time, she was playing for a local team from Nottingham, West Bridge Colts.

That Sunday League lit the fire inside Earps. Her first save in the first match was able to make her feel the save was the biggest save of all time. And that zeal triggered her to indulge in the match.

Remembering her childhood, Earps described it as great. But it was during her secondary level that she started to struggle. It was a struggle to feet, find friends, and even understanding. She even faced the situations of why the things are happening in a certain way.

Earps also faced bullying. It is also sometimes tough to believe that a bubbly character like Earps was also once a victim of bullying. And she used to be chased around the school. And chased her around the school. Obviously not in a fun way. Other children even used to blu-tack her hair.

During her early teens, he also felt the embarrassment. There was also a time when she didn’t want to go to the school. But it was her family ambience that always pushed her to go to school. She was brought up in a family environment where there was no chance of taking off from school.

And Earps used to lie about being ill when she didn’t want to go. This also became a topic of conversation with her parents. And the best alternative was to move through schools. It was like a journey of finding a better school for her.

During the school hunting phase, she even got worst experience and didn’t want to go. But, she also got to drag the attention of some teachers, who succeeded to detect what she was going through and support her.

But Earps started having trust issues. It was not easy for Earps to easily trust anyone and share their problems. This also took her to a phase of filtering about whom to trust and not to trust. And her young age even raised that difficulty.

‘I was definitely wasn’t comfortable with opening up,’ Earps shared in an interview. And her parents started realizing the shift in character of Earps.

Her parents started to notice how she started showing an opposite character. She used to be a girl, who used to show excitement to go to school. But with the time and age, she was finding excuses to skip the school.

It was not easy to find the group with which she could connect herself. Earps was moving from schools to schools in search of finding the group with which she can connect with. Looking back to it, she takes the phase as one which taught her a lot about her life.

‘May be it was a bit traumatic,’ said Earps. She said those phase really affected her without her realization. One of its impact was, she really struggled to talk to people. This lasted till she was 27 years old.

‘I really struggled to be vulnerable or I struggled to express myself,’ said Earps.

But no matter, how tough the time was, Earps loved sports. Whatever the situtaion is, she used to love sports. ‘I’d look forward to whatever it was after school, that I was doing-football, badminton, swimming or playing in the streets or going around the pitch, around with my brother playing kerby or anything active. Anything, I was all over it, ‘ said Earps.

In an interview with the BBC, Earps said, ‘Sports was definitely something that made me really happy.’

After spending all these years in football, Earps has learnt to be open. She said, ‘Now, I feel like, I’d rather be open about how I feel and what I think. And hopefully have a productive conversation.’

“It’s alright” formula

It was not easy for Earps’ to learn the art of conversation. She struggled with the conversation till the age of 27. It was a huge challenge for her to just open up.

But, she learnt to push herself. Earps started to conduct herself, with best intentions, in a best way possible as reaction of others’ is not in anybody’s control.

She used to piled up the unexpressed emotions and matters. Years after realizing the piled up or packed up emotions, she started to unpack it.

Earps believes that the growth of social media changed things massively. She compares the present generation with her days.

She comments on the current world of having people, which compares oneself with other. “I think that must be really tough when you are trying to figure out who you are as a person,’ said Earps, sharing the challenges of the comparing mindset.

Earps even sheds light upon the evaluating your level by comparing it with the success of others. And how the younger generation is falling in the trap.

‘When you’re so young and you’re figuring out life and you’re trying to figure out what’s important to you in the world and what you value and who you are,’ said Earps, ‘And you are surrounded by what everyone else is doing and how great everyone else’s life is.’

But what she wants to suggest her teenage self and the young generation to accept the sitiation. “It’s alright. It’s gonna be alright. It’s alright to be exactly who you are. And don’t be afraid being your self, ‘ said Earsp, ‘It’s alright if you don’t fit in.’

Reflecting upon the low-self esteem and low confidence phase, Earps says how the fight with onself of not feeling the prettiest girl, or popular girl going round and round in the head.

However, after being an adult, she realized, ‘ As long as I’m myself and I’m authenticate to who I am, I’ll find my people. And it’s hard sometimes to be on your own. It’s alright to be on your own, if you are being who you are true to who you are.’

Mary Earps’ Nicknames

So basically, in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 final match against Spain, Earps earned the nickname “Mary Queen of Stops” because of her outstanding goalkeeping performance and crucial saves, including a penalty save in the final against Spain, which led her to win the Golden Glove.

Though the VAR check, celebration and FIFA’s decision was also the other factors of her penalty save. But, Earps’ showed her potential by saving the penalty for sure. From there, Earps was called Mary Queen of Stops.

Mary Earps’ comment upon being called Mary Queen of Stops. ‘I don’t know if that came from the Euro or World Cup, I’m not really sure, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve been called, so I’ll definitely take it,’ said Mary. 

With more than 1.5 million followers on TikTok, Earps is also known as the “TikTok Queen.” She loves posting videos with her team mates, fun moments of the ground and interviews.

Glance at the Mary Earps’ Awards 

• Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper 2022-23
• Women’s Super League Golden Glove 2022-23
• FIFA Women’s World Cup Golden Glove 2023
• England Women’s Player of the Year 2022-23
• BCC Sports Personality of the Year 2023
• BCC Women’s Footballer of the Year 2023
• Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year 2023
• IFFHS (International Federation of Football History and Statistics) World’s Best Goalkeeper 2023
• FIFA FIFPRO Women’s World 11 2023
• Women’s Football Awards 2023 World Cup Hero
• First female footballer to be honoured with a wax figure at Madame Tussauds in London.