England Lionesses shot stopper Mary Earps is set to leave Manchester United to link up with Paris Saint-Germain ahead of the upcoming European women’s football season.
Earps’ departure has long been a subject of media controversy, with the 2022 UEFA Women’s European Championship winner even stirring some of them. Her motive for wanting to leave the club is United’s constant failure to make a mark in the English women’s top flight, which has denied them several opportunities to play in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Earps, 31, grew impatient and wanted to compete at the top level, leading to some of the media controversy surrounding her time at United.
Manchester United even denied her exit to Arsenal last season despite receiving a world-record bid from the North London side.
According to Le Parisien, however, the move to PSG has been in the works for months now. This confirmation officially puts an end to Earps and United’s relationship which has been in effect since 2019 when she joined the club from German side VfL Wolfsburg.
Club part-owner Jim Ratcliffe’s recent comments on their focus could have also contributed to Earps’s decision to leave despite the move being worked upon for months.
Ratcliffe stated that they were solely focused on the men’s team when asked what his plans are for the women’s team in relation to Chelsea’s successes in the women’s division.
“We’ve been pretty much focused on how we resolve the first-team issues, in that environment, and that’s been pretty full-time for the first six months,” he said.
It is also being reported that the women’s team have been moved out of their training facilities to accommodate the men’s team.
Renovation work began on Monday on a £50m investment to modernise the men’s first-team building at Carrington, with the club announcing on 14 June that all areas of the men’s building were “being refurbished to deliver a world-class football facility with a positive culture to support future success.” The building works are expected to last for the duration of the 2024-25 campaign.
The statement and current t happenings is sure to set off a chain reaction of exits from the women’s team, with Earps being the first.
PSG are set to make a statement by offering Earps a contract that will make her the highest-paid goalkeeper in the world. They will, however, lose key players Tabitha Chawinga and Sandy Baltimore to Lyon and Chelsea respectively in the process.
