Mary Earps deserves to make more history at the FIFA Best awards, says Alex Greenwood, as life has “not been plain sailing” for the England keeper.

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Man Utd shot-stopper landing major honoursLooking to defend keeper crown at FIFA Best awardsSuccess the result of hard work on and off the fieldWHAT HAPPENED?

Having slipped out of the international picture at one stage, Earps’ stardom is now very much on the rise. She became a European Championship winner in 2022 and reached the 2023 World Cup final with the Lionesses – saving a penalty against Spain in the final before suffering a 1-0 defeat.

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Earps has also been named BBC Sports Personality of the Year and is being linked with a move at club level from Manchester United to Arsenal. She is the current holder of the The Best Women’s Goalkeeper award and is looking to become the first player to land that prize in consecutive years.

WHAT GREENWOOD SAID

England colleague Greenwood is backing Earps to remain on the trophy trail, telling of a team-mate that has worked hard for everything that she has achieved: “It's not always been plain sailing for Mary in her career and I think she's reaping the rewards for how hard she's worked. She's had an unbelievable couple of years. She's been nominated and won lots of awards over the past 12-24 months and she deserves that. The other two finalists (Mackenzie Arnold and Catalina Coll) for The Best award are fantastic goalkeepers, too, of course. But Mary’s definitely got a good chance of winning it and I'd be surprised if she didn't.”

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Earps has become a role model to millions around the world, with the respect that she now boasts further highlighted by the response to Nike deciding not to make a replica England goalkeeper’s shirt available ahead of the Women’s World Cup – only to then see that jersey sell out in minutes once it did hit shelves.