Mary Earps, a Manchester United and England goalkeeper, stated that everyone who plays in goal has to be “a little bit different” after winning the Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper award in Paris on Monday evening.
Last year, Earps had a fantastic European Championship season, keeping four clean sheets and allowing only two goals.
Her outstanding form has continued at club level, with United, where she became the first goalie in the Women’s Super League to record 50 clean sheets. As a key member of the defense, she has allowed the fewest goals in the league this season, helping the Reds to the top of the table.
While reflecting on her road to the top, she disclosed when her passion for goalkeeping began, telling MEN Sport that she could be a little crazy.
Mary Earps’ statement on her award
“The public must judge whether I’ve been injured or not. I believe that goalies need to be a little bit different from one another.” As she said. “But I think it’s pretty unusual to put someone in the line of fire for a football that may aim at your face, knees, or hands, and you have to sort of appreciate it a little bit and be like, “yeah, good.” I’m going to have to deal with this in some manner. I placed my life in danger. That is clearly out of the ordinary.
“I believe that goalkeeping is a extra-ordinory and thrilling sport position for everyone. Undoubtedly, it’s the most crucial position on a pitch in my opinion. It’s the most difficult thing to accomplish because there is no one proper way to do things, so you just find your own style, and you watch all various goalkeepers playing in the Premier League or the WSL, and they all have a completely different technique. It is not only about scoring goals.
“So, if I’m a bit upset, I don’t know, but I guess it was serendipity that I ended up in goal. I was pretty bored, I’ll be honest, I was cartwheeling around with my dad standing by the goal and he shouted, ‘come on, concentrate’. ‘I’m so bored, I want to be up there in the middle of the action,’ I remarked.
Mary also added;
“I was one of those kids who I wanted to simply be part in it and score because I believed that’s where all the excitement was. After that, I saved this penalty. Then my father told me, ‘See, if one of the other girls had been in goal, they wouldn’t have saved that,’ and that was the end of it. I’ve always wanted to be a goalie, therefore I trained as one.
