{"id":223280,"date":"2026-06-19T16:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/223280\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T16:58:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:58:15","slug":"mary-earps-excited-by-unique-opportunity-at-london-city-lionesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/223280\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Earps excited by \u2018unique opportunity\u2019 at London City Lionesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bromley-based London City, backed by American billionaire owner and Lyon president Michele Kang, finished sixth in their maiden WSL season and are in the process of building a state-of-the-art training facility bespoke to female athletes.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, they are still\u00a0looking for ways to grow their fanbase. A big name like Earps, who has joined from Paris St Germain on a two-year deal, will no doubt be a draw next season.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The wait is over. Welcome to London City, Mary Earps \ud83e\ude75 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CO1jNTzAZ0\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/CO1jNTzAZ0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 London City Lionesses (@LC_Lionesses) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LC_Lionesses\/status\/2067925426761019820?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 19, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Earps said: \u201cI\u2019ve had the privilege of playing for some giants, Manchester United, Paris St Germain, and they\u2019re fantastic to be a part of, don\u2019t get me wrong, but I think there is a unique opportunity with London City to have less restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot more creativity there, the potential for creativity there, because you don\u2019t have to go through the traditional way of doing things.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIronically, I was on a boat shooting for London City in my first engagement for them, but I really visualise it as the difference between being part of a cruise ship, and when you need to make change or you want to do something, it takes a lot of time for that to happen with different approvals, etc.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTotally understandable, but with London City I think there\u2019s a unique opportunity to be more agile, more reactive, and I think in women\u2019s football, where it\u2019s growing so quickly and changing so quickly, that\u2019s a really exciting prospect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That agility, says Earps, feels less like a turning a cruise ship and more like \u201ca kayak or a canoe\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2.78351995.jpg\" alt=\"England goalkeeper Mary Earps applauds the fans after the final whistle in an international friendly match at Wembley Stadium, London. \" data-title=\"England Women v USA Women \u2013 International Friendly \u2013 Wembley Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Archive\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Archive\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"John Walton\" data-usage-terms=\"Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.\"  \/>Earps retired from England duty before the 2025 Women\u2019s European Championships (John Walton\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>The Euro 2022 winner retired from international duty five weeks before England began their title defence last summer.<\/p>\n<p>The timing, and later the fallout from her autobiography \u2013 in particular passages about current England number one keeper Hannah Hampton and head coach Sarina Wiegman \u2013 sparked considerable backlash.<\/p>\n<p>Earps later spoke to the BBC, insisting she had not written the book to \u201ctear anyone down\u201d and felt reaction to it had been \u201cdistorted\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>And while she did not directly address her old club, Manchester United have frequently been the subject of scrutiny, particularly under the minority ownership of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, for treatment of the women\u2019s team \u2013 criticism the club has refuted.<\/p>\n<p>Earps, a self-professed \u201cMichele Kang fangirl\u201d, appreciates the \u201clittle bit disruptive\u201d nature of the US billionaire\u2019s multi-club ownership intervention into women\u2019s football.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2.81605435.jpg\" alt=\"London City Lionesses owner Michele Kang before the Barclays Women\u2019s Super League match at Copperjax Community Stadium, \" data-title=\"London City Lionesses v Manchester United \u2013 Barclays Women\u2019s Super League \u2013 Copperjax Community Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Archive\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Archive\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Steven Paston\" data-usage-terms=\"Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.\"  \/>Earps is a self-professed Michele Kang \u201cfangirl\u201d (Steven Paston\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>She said: \u201cIt\u2019s clear that she really wants to have great, successful teams, but equally she wants to go about things in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year is not quite ready to be thinking about hanging up her gloves entirely and believes London City have a genuine chance of getting close to the Champions League places \u201csometime soon\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Earps added: \u201cFootball is a pretty great job. It\u2019s hard at times, I\u2019m not saying it doesn\u2019t come without its challenges, but I want to play as long as possible until the wheels come off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bromley-based London City, backed by American billionaire owner and Lyon president Michele Kang, finished sixth in their maiden&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-223280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}