Man Utd planning to build long-term legacy around Mary Earps' success
Manchester United are hoping to build a long-term legacy around star goalkeeper Mary Earps that will help them develop the next generation of local and domestic talent inspired by her Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper award this week.
Earps was honoured at FIFA’s annual ceremony in Paris in recognition of her outstanding 2022, during which had an exceptional WSL season with United and went to win Euro 2022 with England.
The 29-year-old, who has kept nine WSL clean sheets in 13 games so far this season as part of the league’s best defence, returned to training on Wednesday morning following her trip to France to collect the trophy. She was applauded by her teammates on arrival, with flowers waiting and a ‘real fuss’ made or her to celebrate the incredible achievement.
Earps referenced having had to get out of a ‘dark place’ in her acceptance speech, arriving in Manchester in 2019 following a year out of her comfort zone as a backup at Wolfsburg. Despite her form at club level since returning to England, she has openly admitted she thought her international career was ‘probably’ over before Sarina Wiegman resurrected it in the autumn of 2021.
But Earps, after quickly establishing herself as a fan favourite with United, was one of the faces of England’s success at Euro 2022 – going viral when she danced on the desk in Wiegman’s post-final press conference. She has an infectious personality and is genuine and warm, qualities that make her extremely likeable independent of her football ability and which were also seen in Paris.
Earps’ journey has the potential to show players that Manchester United is a club where you can achieve world class status – although a well-established WSL player with international caps, she wasn’t at that level in 2019. Her recognition with the FIFA award primarily comes from England’s success, but her Lionesses recall wouldn’t have been possible without a club springboard.
The more far-reaching impact is tapping into a growing generation of young girls who aspire to be like Earps, with United boss Marc Skinner commenting in the wake of the FIFA gala this week on her popularity and the number of people he sees attending games wanting to specifically see her.
United goalkeeping coach Ian Willcock, who Earps referenced in her acceptance speech and has been working with her since she joined the club, is hoping to capitalise on what she has achieved by trying to unearth the ‘next Mary Earps’ in Greater Manchester or nationwide.
“The power of it especially within England and the local Manchester area, is to try and grow our own Mary Earps going forward. To promote that young players, who I’m sure she has inspired, can go on to to be like Mary,” Skinner summarised.
“I think what we can use it for is the power within this country to keep growing our own players. That’s a part of the legacy of the Lionesses and all the players now. Hopefully, we can use it like that. I’m sure it will attract [overseas pros] to the club, but more importantly if we can use that in a local and national standpoint and hope to grow the women’s game internally too.”
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