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When Mary Earps joined Paris Saint-Germain this summer, she talked about her desire to get out of her comfort zone, win trophies and play for one of the best teams in Europe. But while elimination in Champions League qualifying has cast serious doubt over that status, and raised questions about PSG’s ability to challenge for titles, she might not have expected a new personal challenge to have consisted of battling for the No.1 shirt, either.
It’s not been an easy first few weeks for the Lionesses star. Adapting to life in a foreign country, with an unfamiliar language and a different culture, is tough enough, as is settling into a new team. To have also encountered a number of somewhat surprising stumbling blocks on the pitch then, will not have helped.
It all comes in what will be a huge season for Earps. At the end of it, England will head to Switzerland to defend their European title, one Earps played a huge part in the Lionesses winning at Wembley back in 2022. But with Hannah Hampton thriving at Chelsea, will she still be in Sarina Wiegman’s starting line-up come July? A strong year in France would go a long way in helping her secure that spot – and she is going to have to show all of her quality to overcome some obstacles on the path to achieving it.
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Getty ImagesOut of Europe
Emphasis on the words ‘in France’, as that is where all of Earps’ football for PSG will be played this season after a shock Champions League qualifying exit. To be clear, the Parisians got a tough draw, facing five-time Italian champions Juventus, a team that pushed Lyon in the quarter-finals a few years back. However, to lose in the manner they did was incredibly disappointing.
In Turin, PSG were beaten far too easily and Earps will certainly feel that she should’ve at least done better with Sofia Cantore’s goal, Juve’s second in a 3-1 win, after getting both hands to her curling shot. That result meant the French giants had to win convincingly in their home leg – and yet, abysmal set-piece defending proved to be their undoing just two minutes in.
Cantore’s opportunistic finish from a corner extended the aggregate score to 4-1 and late in the second half, after PSG had pulled a goal back and were starting to create chances, Barbara Bonansea capitalised on non-existent marking from another set-piece. While some might argue that Earps could’ve come out and collected the first, that shouldn’t take away from just how poor PSG were from these dead-ball situations, and at crucial moments, as they suffered a dismal 5-2 aggregate defeat.
It marks the first-ever time that the women’s team has lost in Champions League qualifying, with them having made at least the quarter-finals on each of their last nine appearances in the competition – with 2017-18 the only season in that time in which they did not qualify for the UWCL.
Magnet for chaos
Given PSG’s record in Europe, it was a shock. But anyone who has followed the trials and tribulations of this club as a whole in recent years will know that chaos is never far away. Last year, it was Earps and Manchester United who were hopeful of capitalising on that when they drew the Parisians in Champions League qualifying.
Ahead of their first-leg meeting, with just two games of the season played, PSG changed managers, replacing Gerard Precheur with his son, Jocelyn. He made his debut in the dugout against the team’s biggest rival, Lyon, as fans unfurled a banner criticising Kadidiatou Diani, the France international who left to join OL in the summer. “You leave for the money, we stay for the love”, it read. There was no mention of trophies, though, of which Lyon have dozens, compared to PSG’s five major titles in 53 years.
Diani is one of many who have crossed the border of that rivalry in recent years, with three players walking the same path as her after a 2020-21 season which actually ended with PSG beating Lyon to a league title for the first time. On top of 17 league titles in the last 18 seasons, it’s a trend that only reaffirms OL’s status as the dominant force in France.
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GettyChange aplenty
This summer, another star player, Tabitha Chawinga, left PSG and joined Lyon, but the big story at the club was something else entirely. After a strong first season, which produced a Champions League semi-final and a French Cup title, Precheur departed. He didn’t leave for Lyon, another European giant or a big team in the United States. No, he was snapped up by a second-tier English side, London City Lionesses.
With the Chelsea-bound duo of Sandy Baltimore and Oriane Jean-Francois following Chawinga out the exit door to make it three significant departures, a new coach is not the only change PSG are having to adapt to, either.
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Getty ImagesBattle to be No.1
Having been dumped out of Europe, dethroning Lyon will be the priority for PSG this year, that and retaining the French Cup title they won last season for just the fourth time. Amid the team’s bid to be No.1, Earps has her own mini battle to achieve the same feat – for both club and country now, it seems.
While Hampton has been pushing the 31-year-old for her England spot throughout 2024, Earps was the absolute No.1 at Manchester United. Phallon Tullis-Joyce, the talented American who has assumed that role this season, was given the nod in League Cup group-stage fixtures. but otherwise, it was Earps and always Earps. Even when United played second-tier Southampton in the FA Cup, it was Earps.
In Paris, things are different. A few eyebrows were raised when the club signed her this summer, mainly because they didn’t need a goalkeeper. Poland star Katarzyna Kiedrzynek and Constance Picaud, a regular starter for France who has since left for Fleury, split duties well. It seems that will continue too, as the England star was on the bench for PSG’s first home league game of the season on Sunday, with Kiedrzynek in between the sticks against Guingamp.
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Getty ImagesHampton or Earps?
In that sense, this move represents a challenge that Earps hasn’t had to contend with for a while. The 2018-19 season was the last in which the goalkeeper found herself in a real battle to be No.1 for her club, when she was playing for two-time European champions Wolfsburg and found it tough to get minutes ahead of Almuth Schult.
However, that experience, training with a world-class team in a hugely competitive environment, was massively beneficial, especially given she was just 25 years old at the time. It has certainly played a part in her rise to the top of the game, which has seen her win two FIFA Best awards and BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Now, Earps will surely be looking to tap into what she learned from her time in Germany in order to help her in her battle with Kiedrzynek.
And perhaps her situation in Paris is the best preparation for what she’ll experience when she goes away on England duty over the next few months, ahead of the 2025 European Championship. She’s having to train her hardest to earn starts and is being pushed everyday by another top goalkeeper. That’s exactly what she’s going to continue to experience with the Lionesses and Hampton as the two battle it out to be Wiegman’s No.1.
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