Mary Earps Joins London City Lionesses: A New Chapter Begins

Mary Earps is coming home. Not to Old Trafford this time, but to a club intent on crashing English football’s established order.

The former England No 1 has signed a two-year deal with London City Lionesses after leaving Paris St-Germain, a move that underlines both her own unfinished business and the scale of the Lionesses’ ambition.

At 33, Earps walks back into the Women’s Super League with a formidable body of work behind her. Twelve clean sheets in 22 league appearances for PSG last season, a third-place finish in France, and a reputation still intact as one of the most reliable goalkeepers in the game. She leaves Ligue 1 with numbers that back up the aura.

But this move is about more than statistics.

A statement signing for a restless club

London City, only one season into life in the WSL and backed by wealthy American owner Michele Kang, are not content with mid-table respectability. Sixth in 2025-26 was a strong debut. It also lit a fire.

They have responded by going after some of the biggest names in the women’s game. Earps is the first to land. Spain defender Mapi Leon is expected to follow. Talks continue with two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas after her departure from Barcelona.

This is not a quiet build. It is an attempted leap.

Earps knows exactly what that looks like. She helped Manchester United grow from contenders to trophy winners, making more than 100 appearances across five seasons and anchoring the side that finally lifted their first major silverware, the Women’s FA Cup, in 2024. She has lived the process of a club trying to fast-track its way into the elite.

“I feel the club aligns with what I stand for. I can't wait to get started and to get down to business,” she said after the move was confirmed. The language is familiar: standards, identity, ambition. But the setting is new, and the stakes are rising.

From global stage to new project

Earps arrives as a two-time Fifa Best Goalkeeper of the Year, a central figure in England’s Euro 2022 triumph and their run to the 2023 World Cup final. Her international retirement in 2025 closed one chapter, but did not cool the intensity around her.

She became one of the most recognisable and influential players in the country, her profile stretching far beyond the pitch. The book released in November only amplified that, sparking controversy and dominating headlines for weeks. Every word was picked apart, every revelation replayed.

And yet, when she walked back out at Old Trafford earlier this season with PSG in the Women’s Champions League, the response cut through the noise. Warm applause at full-time. A mural outside the stadium still celebrating her spell at the club. Whatever the debates, the bond remained.

That kind of presence now belongs to London City.

“So much left to give”

Earps is not treating this as a gentle final act.

“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 softening of the challenge either. “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.”

The message is clear: this is not a farewell tour, it is a push.

Inside the club, the infrastructure is being built to match that tone. Earps spoke of the “incredible” vision and ambition, highlighting the new training facility as a tangible sign of where Kang and her team want to take the project. “It shows what our owner Michele and everyone at the club want to do in terms of really going for it,” she said.

That phrase matters: really going for it. Not surviving. Not consolidating. Competing, quickly.

A marker laid down

For the rest of the WSL, this is a warning shot. A club in only its second top-flight season is recruiting a goalkeeper who has stood at the very summit of the women’s game, while simultaneously trying to pull in a World Cup-winning defender and a two-time Ballon d’Or winner.

Earps, for her part, framed it in simple, competitive terms: “It's about putting a marker down and saying we want to be competitive in a short space of time.”

She has spent her career setting markers. At United. With England. Now, in the capital, she steps into a new dressing room with the same intent.

London City have made their move. The question now is how quickly the rest of the league will feel it.