Top News

Former England goalkeeper Mary Earps is set for an immediate reunion with her old club Manchester United after returning to England with London City Lionesses.

Earps said she is “very, very happy to be home” after coming back to the Women’s Super League following two seasons with Paris Saint-Germain.

The opening fixture of the Women’s Super League season will see Earps and London City take on Manchester United, the club where she spent five years before making the move to France.

During her two years away, Earps said she missed the comforts of home, especially Percy Pigs, and is now delighted to be back in the WSL, with the added excitement of facing her former side in the first match.

Earps spent two years at PSG after leaving Manchester United, and said the move gave her the chance to experience life away from the spotlight that had followed her in England.

Although she said it was “nice to be away” and to enjoy “the Parisian way of life”, her discussions with London City helped convince her that it was the right time to return to England.

“I’m very, very happy to be home,” Earps said. “I missed the English comforts, my friends and family and a Percy Pig or two!

“From a football point of view, I missed the English football culture - the way you feel when you walk into a stadium, the electricity of the crowd, the feeling around women's football in this country.

“I knew I was probably going to miss that going away, but that's why I'm so excited to be back. Distance makes the heart grow fonder.

“I went away to push myself out of my comfort zone and get a different football and life experience. I'll carry that with me forever.”

Earps’ meeting with United on the opening day of the season sets up another notable clash with her former club.

Only last season, PSG were drawn against Manchester United in the Champions League, and Earps was warmly received on her return to Old Trafford. She said that reaction meant a “great deal” to her at the time, especially as it had been a turbulent period following the publication of her autobiography explaining why she retired from international football.

With her first competitive outing for London City potentially coming against United, Earps joked that the fixture felt almost unavoidable: “Yeah, like a moth to a flame.”

“The club has changed a lot since I left but although some people have moved on as football and life does, there will still be a few friendly faces that I know and the fans don't change - they're still hardcore as ever.”

While Earps said she does not yet know whether she will start in goal for London City, she added that the battle for a place is something she relishes.

“I want to continue to play at the highest level, to win at the highest level for as long as possible and to be a part of something special,” Earps added. “I really do believe that London City will go on to do great things for a long time.

“The way Michele [Kang] wants to do things, they want to be the best in class and world leading. So for me, it's a great place to be, for me to max out on whatever potential I have left and hopefully there's some fantastic days around the corner.

“London City being owned by a woman, being an independent football club, being able to go about their business in a non-traditional sense, really attack whatever they want to go for and become a success in their own right - I think that's an incredibly exciting thing to be a part of.

“Every time I spoke to them, I wanted to hear more, so it felt like the right place to be.

“We've been crying out for investment for such a long time and this is new and it's different and no one likes change. It is very unique and it’s not connected [to a men’s club] so you don’t have that tribalism of a men's club in that typical sense.

“Maybe I'm biased, but I think there will be a lot of people rooting for London City taking a different path, but there's a long way to go.

“I think it’ll be fun. It’s a fun, new thing and I know that people might be a bit unsure of it to start with, but hopefully we'll win over the hearts and minds of the nation.”