Mary Earps Returns to Women’s Super League with London City Lionesses
Mary Earps has never been one for quiet entrances.
On Friday night, under the lights and the cameras and all the old emotions, the new London City Lionesses goalkeeper could step back into the Women’s Super League against the club that shaped the peak years of her career. Manchester United again. It feels, in her words, “meant to be”.
Back to where the story exploded
Earps spent five seasons at United and left as far more than a reliable No 1. She became England’s first-choice goalkeeper, twice crowned Fifa’s goalkeeper of the year, and the face of a generation-changing Lionesses side. At United she passed 100 appearances, lifted the club’s first major women’s trophy with the 2024 FA Cup, and turned herself into a symbol as much as a shot-stopper.
Her impact stretched well beyond Manchester. With England, she stood firm through Euro 2022 glory and the run to the 2023 World Cup final, performances that helped earn her BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2023 and pushed her into the mainstream in a way few goalkeepers ever experience.
That visibility came with a price. Last November, her book triggered controversy and a storm of headlines that swirled for weeks. Yet when she returned to Old Trafford with Paris St-Germain in the Women’s Champions League last season, the reception cut through the noise. She was applauded. The mural of her outside the stadium stayed up. The connection held.
“I got a nice reception at Old Trafford and it meant a great deal to me at that time,” she said. United, she knows, has moved on. So has she. The memories have not. “I spent five wonderful years there and I made amazing memories. I won an FA Cup and met a lot of incredible people. I know the fans don’t change – they are still as hardcore as ever.”
Now she prepares to face them again, this time in different colours and with a different mission.
Paris, perspective and the pull of home
Her move to PSG had been about stretching herself. Champions League football. Silverware. A step away from the relentless scrutiny that followed her in England. Over two seasons in Paris, she made 22 league appearances and embraced a different rhythm of life.
“PSG is a great club,” she reflected. The Parc des Princes, the food, the language, the Parisian tempo – all of it offered something she felt she needed. An intense competitor by nature, she used the time to step back from “the craziness in England”, to reflect and reset without losing her edge.
She is clear: it was not an escape, but a deliberate push beyond her comfort zone. Still, once her contract expired, the pull of home became impossible to ignore. The WSL crowds. The noise. The feeling when you walk into an English stadium and the air crackles.
“I’m very, very happy to be home,” she said. She missed the culture around the women’s game in England, the sense of shared occasion. Distance, in her case, really did make the heart grow fonder.
A new project, the same standards
London City have made it clear they are not in the league just to make up the numbers. Earps is one of several marquee arrivals, joining two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas and Spain defender Mapi León in a squad that suddenly looks built for ambition rather than survival.
Yet nothing is guaranteed. Earps has started the club’s last two pre-season games, but the No 1 shirt is not simply waiting for her. Elene Lete impressed last season and has no intention of stepping aside.
“The reality of it is that I’ve been here a few weeks and I’m trying to earn my place in the team every single day,” Earps said. “Elene did a great job last year and it won’t be easy between us to see who starts.”
That battle suits her. It sharpens standards, drives the group, and fits with what London City are trying to build. Earps talks now less about personal trophies and more about contribution.
“I just want to contribute to the team’s success and hopefully that is playing a lot of games and being a part of their history in some small way.”
Life after England, not after football
Her international chapter is closed. Earps announced her England retirement in 2025, drawing a line under a period in which she became one of the most recognisable figures in the sport. The club game, though, still burns bright.
She has signed a two-year deal with London City and speaks like someone who sees growth, not decline, on the horizon. She believes the club can climb the WSL, and that she can climb with it.
“I want to continue to play at the highest level, to win at the highest level for as long as possible and to be a part of something special,” she said. London City, in her eyes, are built for that. “They want to be the best in class and world-leading.”
Those words could easily double as a personal mantra. She talks often about being the best version of herself “as a player and a person every day”, about squeezing every last drop out of whatever potential remains. The day she stops learning, she insists, is the day she stops playing.
For now, she feels there is plenty left. Big performances. Big crowds. Big nights. Perhaps, starting with one more charged evening against Manchester United, there are still some of the biggest days of all waiting just around the corner.
