SPOTY honour rewards Mary Earps’ decision to ‘give it a couple more years’

Mary Earps in action for England (Rene Nijhuis/PA)

Mary Earps being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year marks the latest high in an incredible turnaround for a player who in early 2021 was considering calling time on her career.

At that point, the goalkeeper had not been involved in the England set-up since claiming her eighth cap in November 2019.

After being recalled as part of Sarina Wiegman’s first Lionesses squad in September 2021, she has gone on to help the team make history as Euro 2022 winners on home soil and then runners-up at this year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The final of the latter saw Earps pull off a penalty save, and she received the tournament’s Golden Glove award, six months on from being named FIFA women’s goalkeeper of the year.

A post shared by Mary Earps (@1maryearps)

As well as recently being nominated for the FIFA accolade again, the 30-year-old was fifth in the Ballon d’Or voting, and 2023 also included her finishing last season with a Women’s Super League-record 14 clean sheets across the campaign for Manchester United.

The journey that might have stopped before she reached such heights began with Nottingham-born Earps kicking a ball around in her garden with her younger brother and father. Having trained with her brother’s team but been unable to play in matches, she joined West Bridgford Colts aged 10.

The young Earps – who would do games like ‘two touch’ with a classmate who shared her love of goalkeeping – was involved in various other activities like badminton, judo, swimming and dancing, which she has said helped build a confidence evident in her readiness to be vocal when playing football.

She spent time with Leicester and Nottingham Forest before joining