Mary Earps Joins London City Lionesses: A New Ambition in WSL
Mary Earps is coming home. And she is not easing herself back in.
The former England No 1 has signed a two-year deal with London City Lionesses, a statement move from a club intent on fast‑tracking their rise in the Women’s Super League.
Earps arrives from Paris St-Germain, where the 33-year-old walked away this summer at the end of her contract after two seasons in France. Her final campaign in Paris underlined that she remains one of the game’s elite goalkeepers: 22 league appearances, 12 clean sheets, and a third-place finish in the Première Ligue, even if PSG ended up 13 points adrift of champions Lyon.
“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, her words carrying the same edge that once drove England to a European title.
A heavyweight signing for an ambitious project
London City are not behaving like a side only one year into WSL life. Backed by American businesswoman Michele Kang, they finished a highly respectable sixth in 2025-26, then immediately set about behaving like a club that has no intention of lingering in mid-table.
Earps is the headline arrival. Not a nostalgic signing. A competitive one.
“I feel I still have so much left to give to the game and that's exactly why I chose London City,” she said. “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 a goalkeeper winding down. This is a goalkeeper picking a fight with the league.
Inside the club, the message is the same. The Lionesses are pushing hard for Spain defender Mapi Leon and remain in talks with two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas after her Barcelona exit. Those are not the targets of a side content with survival. They are the targets of a team trying to redraw the WSL’s power map.
Earps has seen that ambition up close.
“The club's values represent what I want to represent and they are passionate about what I want to achieve,” she said. “All the conversations have been really positive and every time I spoke with the club I wanted to hear more.
“The vision and ambition, including the new training facility, is incredible and I'm looking forward to seeing that develop. It shows what our owner Michele [Kang] and everyone at the club want to do in terms of really going for it.
“It's about putting a marker down and saying we want to be competitive in a short space of time.”
From Old Trafford icon to capital project
Earps’ move also closes one chapter of a remarkable English career and opens another in the capital.
She became a modern emblem of the national team, twice winning the Fifa Best Goalkeeper of the Year award and playing a defining role in England’s Euro 2022 triumph and their run to the 2023 World Cup final. Her performances, presence and personality helped drag goalkeeping standards – and expectations – to a new level in the women’s game.
At club level, she spent five years at Manchester United, making more than 100 appearances and anchoring the side as they claimed their first major trophy in 2024, lifting the Women’s FA Cup. A mural of her outside Old Trafford still celebrates that era, a rare honour for a goalkeeper and an even rarer one in the women’s game.
Her international retirement in 2025 did little to dim the spotlight. The book she released in November sparked controversy and dominated the back pages for weeks, proof that she had long since crossed from player to cultural figure. Yet when she returned to Old Trafford earlier this season with PSG in the Women’s Champions League, United fans put the noise to one side and applauded her warmly at full-time.
The respect is banked. The competitive fire clearly is not.
A new standard for London City
For London City, this is about more than a famous name on the teamsheet. It is about raising standards every single day.
Earps brings the experience of major finals, title races and intense scrutiny into a dressing room still learning the rhythms of top-flight football. She has lived the pressure of expectation at United, carried England shirts in the biggest moments, and rebuilt herself in a foreign league. That kind of resilience is hard to buy. London City just have.
Her presence also sharpens the focus on the club’s wider project. A new training facility is on the way. High-profile targets are in play. Sixth in their first WSL season now looks like a launchpad rather than an overachievement.
The goalkeeper who once defined England’s rise now ties her future to a club trying to engineer their own. The WSL is unforgiving, and Earps knows it. But she has chosen the fight.
If London City match her ambition, this will not be remembered as a sentimental homecoming. It will be remembered as the moment a new contender stopped whispering about the top and started aiming straight for it.
