Mary Earps Joins London City Lionesses on Ambitious Journey
Mary Earps is back in English football. Not as a nostalgia act, not on a farewell tour, but on a two-year deal with a club trying to crash the established order.
London City Lionesses, only a season into life in the Women’s Super League, have landed one of the defining goalkeepers of her generation.
A statement signing for an ambitious upstart
Earps arrives from Paris St-Germain, where she quietly put together another elite campaign. Twenty-two league appearances. Twelve clean sheets. A third-place finish in France, with PSG still looking up at Lyon but rarely looking shaky behind her.
When her contract expired, the obvious question followed: what next for a goalkeeper who has already done almost everything? The answer is not a safe choice, not a soft landing. It is a club still writing its first chapters in the top flight.
"I feel the club aligns with what I stand for. I can't wait to get started and to get down to business," Earps said, outlining a decision that feels as much about identity as it is about football.
London City, backed by American businesswoman Michele Kang, have not been shy about their intentions. Sixth in their debut WSL season in 2025-26 was impressive; their recruitment this summer is designed to make that look ordinary.
They are set to bring in Spain defender Mapi Leon. Talks continue with two-time Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas after her exit from Barcelona. Now, they have secured a two-time Fifa Best Goalkeeper of the Year. This is not a club content to “consolidate.”
"The club's values represent what I want to represent and they are passionate about what I want to achieve," Earps said. "The vision and ambition, including the new training facility, is incredible… It shows what our owner Michele [Kang] and everyone at the club want to do in terms of really going for it."
The message is blunt: London City are here to disrupt.
From Old Trafford icon to WSL challenger
Earps returns to England with a legacy already carved in stone – quite literally in Manchester. There is a mural of her outside Old Trafford, a reminder of five influential years at Manchester United and more than 100 appearances that helped drag the club into the women’s elite.
She was there for the breakthrough. United’s first major trophy in 2024, the Women’s FA Cup, came with Earps as a central figure, a goalkeeper who turned big moments into routine saves and penalty shootouts into theatre.
On the international stage, her impact ran even deeper. She was pivotal in England’s Euro 2022 triumph and their march to the 2023 World Cup final, performances that earned her global recognition and those two Fifa Best Goalkeeper awards. For a time, she was not just England’s No 1; she was the face of a team that altered the landscape of the women’s game in the country.
By the time she stepped away from international duty in 2025, she had become one of the most recognised and influential players in England. Her book, released in November of that year, sparked controversy and dominated headlines for weeks, a reminder that her voice carried weight well beyond the penalty area.
Yet the relationship with Manchester never truly frayed. When she returned to Old Trafford this season with PSG in the Women’s Champions League, home fans gave her a warm applause at full-time. The mural and the reception told the same story: whatever the noise around her, Earps had earned her place in club history.
A new fight, not a farewell
Now comes a different challenge. No established powerhouse. No ready-made title bid. Instead, a club trying to leapfrog the ladder.
"I feel I still have so much left to give to the game and that's exactly why I chose London City," she said. There was no illusion about what awaits. "It won't be easy - the WSL is extremely competitive. The team had a brilliant 2025-26 season finishing mid-table in their first season, now it's about climbing the table and working towards finishing as high as possible."
This is not the language of a player easing towards retirement. It is the language of someone who wants to put down another marker, in a different shirt, in a league she knows as well as anyone.
London City are betting that Earps can do for them what she did for Manchester United: raise standards, harden a dressing room, turn ambition into points. With a new training facility on the way and a recruitment strategy targeting serial winners, the infrastructure is being built around her.
For Earps, the move offers something else: a clean slate on home soil, away from the glare of national-team selection debates but still at the sharp end of competition. The WSL will test her again. Strikers are smarter, teams deeper, margins thinner.
She has chosen that pressure. London City have embraced it. Now the question is simple: in a league where giants rarely step aside, how high can this partnership push the ceiling?
