Mary Earps talks on the aftermath of her sudden retirement as she believes she has been cast as the villain.
Mary Earps hurt by reaction to her England retirement.
After feeling “villainized” by the public’s response to her May announcement of her international retirement, Mary Earps has stated that the support of her England teammates meant “the absolute world to me.”
The Paris Saint-Germain goalie, who was instrumental in England’s 2022 European Championship victory and their subsequent run to the World Cup final, was heavily criticised for announcing her international future less than six weeks prior to the Lionesses’ opening match in their European title defence. However, Earps has maintained that it was a “very hard decision” that she had been considering for a while.
“It was difficult and it was painful,” said Earps, who earned 53 caps for her country. “Some people were amazing and the girls, the way they had my back … that meant the absolute world to me. These are girls that I grew up with and have so many amazing memories with. It was sad but I think it’s the right thing.
“I think that I was villainised in a way, that probably was a bit hard to see things and read things, but it’s more what my friends and family see. I’m upset for them because I’m like: ‘You didn’t choose this. You’ve got to now deal with this.’ That’s hard. But in the end I feel like it was the right decision.”
“I don’t want it to be painful watching them but I won’t know until it’s there because I felt almost a bit of relief because it had been so long coming,” the 32-year-old former Manchester United player said, referring to her retirement.
“The girls are, first of all, a phenomenal team. I think they’re going to do really, really well, so I’m really looking forward to seeing that.
“Mentally, physically, I was just like: ‘Right, I’ve given everything here.’ Maybe other people weren’t experiencing it the way I was experiencing it. I’m quite private, I keep everything in and I try to internalise it and rationalise it. Maybe it was shocking to some people but I think [that was because] we’ve been having those conversations behind closed doors.”