Mary Earps | wins BBC women's footballer of the year

“When I was playing at Wolfsburg, there were so many United fans that were in the dressing room.

“I was really surprised by how many United fans there were. I didn’t realise outside of the country or outside of Manchester how global [the club] is.”
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Earps raised the issue with Nike and even offered to fund the production herself but was told this would not be possible.

‘I can’t really sugarcoat this any way so I’m not going to try, it’s hugely disappointing and very hurtful,’ Earps said at England’s Brisbane hotel.

‘It’s something that I’ve been fighting behind closed doors. I’ve been desperately trying to find a solution with the FA and with Nike.

‘Unfortunately it’s become very evident that is not possible and there’s not going to be an acceptable solution for the young kids out there. On a personal level it’s obviously hugely hurtful, considering the last 12 months especially.

‘For my own family, friends and loved ones not to be able to buy my shirt, they’re just going to come out and wear normal clothes. All my team-mates, they’ve ordered a lot of shirts for their friends and family, they’re talking at the dinner table “I wasn’t able to get this” and I’m saying “I wasn’t able to get it at all”.

‘I know there’s a lot of people who have spent a tremendous amount of money on outfield shirts and then put ‘1 Earps’ on the back, which doesn’t sit well with me either.

‘It’s a very scary message that’s being sent to goalkeepers worldwide that “you’re not important”

‘A lesson I’ve learned is that I should have made a public statement sooner maybe. I look back on it and I’ve tried everything. I offered to fund it myself and my team-mates have been really supportive.’

‘My shirt on the Manchester United website last season was sold out. It was the third best-selling shirt. So who says it’s not selling? I asked “can there be any solution? Can we make a somewhat replica shirt that can be sold to young people?”

‘Young kids are gonna say “mum, dad, can I have a Mary Earps shirt?” and they will say “I can’t [buy that] but I can get you an Alessia Russo 23 or a Rach Daly 9.” So what you’re saying is that goalkeeping isn’t important but you can be a striker if you want.

‘That was my point also to Nike: we could be world leading in this area, which is something that we pride ourselves on, being first, being the best, and I think we’re really falling short here.

‘I get comments all the time on all my social media channels: “Mary, where are the shirts!”. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it happen. I feel really bad that a massive portion of the fans have been truly let down by this, it makes me feel really really crap to be honest.’

‘I temperature checked it with Leah [Williamson] at the time, Lotte [Wubben-Moy] and a few of the others, and I said “am I overreacting girls?”’ and they said “no Mary, it’s totally unacceptable. We as a group stand for inclusion and this is the total opposite of what we stand for.

‘They were also talking about “why are we aligning with brands that don’t have inclusion at the centre? Why is it always about the bottom line?”

‘I think the minimum that should have happened was, when somebody recognised it was wrong, they should have brought it to my attention. If nobody recognised it was wrong, that's a big issue - that says everything as far as I'm concerned. Everything's just an afterthought when it comes to goalkeeping.’

‘I am grateful for anyone who does anything to show their support for me, in any way.’

‘Unfortunately, the best thing that can come out of this situation is that there's a commitment going forward that this won't happen again.’
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top1whoisman said:
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From Nike's perspective it surely makes sense - but it does raise a bigger "issue". How often do you see people wearing a goalie kit vs a field player? Even with the men it seems pretty rare. Which honestly is pretty sad when you consider a lot of them put in more minutes bar none and clearly have one of the most high pressure - if not the most high pressure - job on the pitch.
 
Redplane said:
From Nike's perspective it surely makes sense - but it does raise a bigger "issue". How often do you see people wearing a goalie kit vs a field player? Even with the men it seems pretty rare. Which honestly is pretty sad when you consider a lot of them put in more minutes bar none and clearly have one of the most high pressure - if not the most high pressure - job on the pitch.
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Yeap. And for example Onana is such a big signing for many fans + one of the only African players we have, I'm sure we'll sell a decent amount of his shirts for example. And keepers are still idols for many young kids.
 
As a Scotsman I find myself just naturally supporting anyone but an English team but feck me does Mary Earps make it hard. She’s an absolute legend and so likeable and to boot a magnificent keeper. I had no doubt she was going to save that pen and when she did I found myself cheering.

Im currently in hiding as they might try to revoke my Scottishness but she is just incredible.
 
Andersons Dietician said:
As a Scotsman I find myself just naturally supporting anyone but an English team but feck me does Mary Earps make it hard. She’s an absolute legend and so likeable and to boot a magnificent keeper. I had no doubt she was going to save that pen and when she did I found myself cheering.

Im currently in hiding as they might try to revoke my Scottishness but she is just incredible.
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She really is.
 
I hope she has one more World Cup in her. She truly deserves to be one of the greatest GKs.
 
Aye, she's awesome, absolute elite mentality, what a woman, we're blessed in these positions for both teams.
 
ForeverRed1 said:
No no no. Although she probably will leave next year when her contract is up :(
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At long as we aren't winning things we have to expect that. But we won't be winning any thing unless we hang onto our best players. All we can do is try and avoid losing people over things we can do something about - like contract offers etc
 
jojojo said:
At long as we aren't winning things we have to expect that. But we won't be winning any thing unless we hang onto our best players. All we can do is try and avoid losing people over things we can do something about - like contract offers etc
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Hopefully we learn from Lauren James and Russo, right? With players like guyse coming in and rumours of us being busy in the coming few weeks, hopefully they will get their act together and make her an offer she can’t refuse. Mary and Ella are the face of this womens team so losing them would be ridiculous at this point. We got to go out and get the best available to get anywhere near the big trophies.
 
Why are the ones running the women's team p***ing off our major players for some reason. Why do they not want her there? I couldn't read all the article. It doesn't seem a great way to make progress. More just reaching a certain level.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Why are the ones running the women's team p***ing off our major players for some reason. Why do they not want her there? I couldn't read all the article. It doesn't seem a great way to make progress. More just reaching a certain level.
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Why would you assume they don’t want her there?
 
Cassidy said:
Why would you assume they don’t want her there?
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No I have misread that article. Presume if it is Arsenal they have turned her head, but you would think if we did not leave things rather late at times we would be making her feel wanted. There is an article by the same writer saying we left it late with an offer for Battle, but I think to be honest she just wanted to go home.
 
Let's not try and pin this on the club again.
 
Was explaining this to my dad, United isn't the big deal in the women's game. Arsenal is the big draw for all the women, they've always been the most successful.
 
Let her go. I am so sick of this bullshit now. United shouldn’t be begging anyone to stay. 100k is nothing though so maybe we should just make her stay and let her go when the contract is over.
 
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