Mary Earps said she has \u201clearned some tough lessons\u201d and understands why there was such strong condemnation of comments made in her autobiography last year.<\/p>\n
The former England goalkeeper told the Guardian the \u201clast thing she wanted to do\u201d was hurt Sarina Wiegman<\/a> and she is grateful to have had a chance to meet up with the Lionesses head coach and have a \u201creally positive conversation\u201d since the release of her book in November, which led to a huge backlash.<\/p>\n Comments in the autobiography<\/a> about Earps\u2019 former England teammate Hannah Hampton, whom Earps said had been \u201crewarded for bad behaviour\u201d<\/a> by Wiegman, dominated sports headlines for several days after the book was serialised by the Guardian<\/a>. The Chelsea manager, Sonia Bompastor, was among those to respond by criticising Earps<\/a> for \u201cnot showing respect\u201d to a manager or teammate.<\/p>\n Mary Earps at Calverton Miners Welfare FC in Nottingham as they name a pitch in her honour. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cThat was kind of my first rodeo with \u2018cancel culture\u2019, and 0 out of 10 \u2013 would not recommend to other people,\u201d Earps said. \u201cI take full responsibility for the book and the things that happened around the book.<\/p>\n \u201cI took some time out to really reflect on the whole situation and there were clearly things that I could have done better. There were some tough lessons learned. I\u2019m human. I\u2019m not perfect, I\u2019m still learning. I\u2019m still growing as a person. I want to use those lessons going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Earps, who also spoke in her book about personal topics such as being bullied at school, was particularly criticised for her words about Wiegman, who made her England\u2019s No 1 in 2021. \u201cI have an incredible amount of respect for Sarina, always have, always will,\u201d Earps said. \u201cSarina and I have spoken. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll understand that I would want that conversation to remain private. But yes, we spoke, we\u2019ve met up. It was a really positive conversation. And I\u2019m really grateful to Sarina for that opportunity for us to speak.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, now I\u2019ve had some time and distance from it, I can understand it [the backlash]. Now I can see things for what they are. [At the time] it felt like: \u2018All right, I\u2019m retiring internationally and then I go on to the next thing.\u2019 And it felt like the next natural progression [to write the book] but I think I had my blinkers on. Now, with time, I\u2019m more removed from it, I can see it, for sure.<\/p>\n Earps said the fallout from her autobiography was her \u2018first rodeo with cancel culture\u2019. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cIn a weird way it\u2019s a compliment for how much the game has grown and it\u2019s a compliment that people hold me to a high standard. Ultimately, life is about lessons and growing and constantly striving to be the best version of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n The Paris Saint-German goalkeeper was speaking after the official opening of a community football pitch, named the \u201cMary Earps pitch\u201d, at Calverton Miners Welfare FC, in her home city of Nottingham. Hundreds of young players turned up to mark the occasion and Earps was swamped with requests for autographs and pictures after cutting the ribbon and joining in with a training session.<\/p>\n The pitch was funded in large part by a \u00a3660,000 grant from the Premier League, Football Association and government\u2019s Football Foundation, which launched the Lionesses Futures Fund in 2023 after Earps and her England teammates triumphed on home soil at 2022\u2019s European Championship<\/a>. It has funded 35 new 3G pitches which will prioritise access for women and girls through reserved peak-time slots and female-only evenings. Earps\u2019 pitch, with help from the Nottinghamshire FA, was also funded by the club, Nottinghamshire county council, Calverton Parish Council, Gedling Borough Council and the Thomas Farr Fund, and it holds a special place in Earps\u2019 heart, because she competed in summer football tournaments at Calverton in her early teenage years.<\/p>\n Earps, who played 53 times for England and kept 26 clean sheets, said it was \u201camazing to have a pitch named after me here\u201d, close to where some of her family live, and described the bustling turnout as \u201csurreal\u201d, saying: \u201cOne of my priorities has been to do more stuff at home. When you go away, you realise how much that matters to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Earps was swamped with requests for autographs and pictures in her home city. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Earps, who saved a penalty in the 2023 World Cup final<\/a>, said there were plans \u201cin the works\u201d with the FA to celebrate her retirement, which was revealed in a shock announcement<\/a> before last summer\u2019s Euros, and that she was \u201csuper-excited\u201d about them. She is approaching the final four months of her contract with PSG, whom she joined after leaving Manchester United in 2024. Asked about her contract and what the future holds, she replied: \u201cWe\u2019ll have to wait and see, won\u2019t we? I\u2019m not too sure yet. I know I\u2019m really enjoying Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n Discussing her PSG spell more broadly, she said: \u201cI\u2019ve loved it. I was taken completely out of my comfort zone and challenged, and that was exactly what I wanted. I was so petrified of potentially stagnating and not learning and growing. I\u2019m learning a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mary Earps said she has \u201clearned some tough lessons\u201d and understands why there was such strong condemnation of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-491117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}