Mary Earps Becomes First English Goalkeeper Shortlisted For The Best FIFA Awards

Manchester United’s Mary Earps has today been announced as among the top three goalkeepers in the world after making the final shortlist for The Best FIFA Awards. She is the first-ever English goalkeeper, either male or female, to achieve this feat.

Earps, England’s ever-present goalkeeper during their victory at the UEFA Women’s Euro last summer, has been shortlisted alongside Lyon’s Champions League winning goalkeeper, Christiane Endler of Chile, and Chelsea’s Ann-Katrin Berger. The three other players initially nominated last month were VfL Wolfsburg’s Merle Frohms, Chicago Red Stars’ Alyssa Naeher and Barcelona’s Sandra Paños.

In 2020, Earps’ current international understudy, Ellie Roebuck of Manchester City was on the six-player longlist for The Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper Award but ultimately failed to make the top three, finishing sixth with just five ranking points, nineteen behind winner Sarah Bouhaddi.

Speaking to me today, Manchester United manager Marc Skinner told me that working with Earps was “a pleasure”. He went on to say “she’s matured really well, taken everything in her stride and really is the consummate professional.”

Skinner praised the unseen work Earps does day in, day out with goalkeeping coach, Ian Willcock. “Ian and Mary, even before me, have had a relationship that they really thrive with. He sets a high expectation, she sets a high expectation herself. They work daily on the details that will take her to the next level. Every day they will work on some aspect of her development. As a collective they are focused, they are out early, they finish usually after us.”

Skinner also singled out her distribution as something that has noticeably improved recently. “I thought her game the other day, even though we had very little to do. Her kicking game was exceptional so there’s another sign of her development, her concentration, the right weight, the right distance.”

Lyon’s Endler has made it into the top three of The Best FIFA Goalkeeper category in every year since it was created in 2019, winning the award for the first time in 2021. Speaking to me last month, Earps was full of praise for the Chilean, “in terms of the best goalkeeper in recent years and somebody I think is very, very good, I’d put Endler up there. I think she’s a phenomenal goalkeeper to be honest.”

Earps finished second behind Endler in the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) award for the Women’s World Goalkeeper of 2022. First awarded to men’s goalkeepers in 1987, Earps has became only the second English goalkeeper to finish among the top three in any year since David Seaman in 1996, who also finished second.

Last month, Earps, who has played in a record 70 consecutive games for Manchester United since she joined them from VfL Wolfsburg in the summer of 2019, became the first goalkeeper to record 50 clean sheets in the Women’s Super League, which she extended to 51 during last Sunday’s goalless draw against Everton.

Chelsea’s Berger also made the top three for the second consecutive year, a remarkable achievement for the German considering in August she announced she was once more battling against thyroid cancer having first been diagnosed with the condition in November 2017. Last month she told me what it meant for her to be selected ahead of Germany’s number one, Merle Frohms. “Epecially for me, as just a club goalkeeper – the rest have an international team with which to go out and shine – I think, it’s a huge honor for me to be there.”

Voting is now closed for The Best FIFA Awards. The accolade recognises the most outstanding performers in the women’s game from the period of 7 August 2021 to 31 July 2022. The winners will be revealed during a ceremony to be held in Paris on Monday February 27.