England’s Lionesses have taken the world by storm enforcing social change after lifting the European Championship trophy last summer.
While their initiative has resulted in the recent announcement for young girls to have equal chances to play football, Manchester United and England’s goalkeeper Mary Earps declared that she wants to go deeper and impact the narrative surrounding goalkeepers.
The 30-year-old spoke candidly to MEN Sport about her visceral passion to get kids exposed and involved with being in between the sticks. She said: “I want to get as many young people excited about playing in goal because on a lot of the TV adverts you constantly see strikers or people scoring goals, that's what you think is important, you're conditioned to believe that that's the only thing that matters.
"Whereas my job is to stop the whole purpose of the game [scoring goals]. I feel like young kids only really see those players scoring or playing incredible passes, they don't really look up to the goalkeepers as much because it's not, it's not seen in the same way. So I really want to be a part of changing that.
“You can't be what you can't see right?
“I feel really strongly that goalkeeping is so fun, it's so unique. Obviously from my point of view, it's the most important position on a pitch. It's the hardest thing to do. And it's so unique by nature because there's no one right way of doing things you just find a way for yourself.
“You see all different goalkeepers playing in the Premier League or the Women's Super League and they all have a completely different technique. So it really encourages individuality and I really enjoy that.
“I want young kids to also see that and, hopefully, I can be a part of changing that narrative - you can be a goalkeeper and it is cool and it is exciting and it is fun. It's not just all about scoring goals."
Earps is among the England squad who challenged to government with the #LetGirlsPlay campaign following their European triumph and now Schools are being asked to offer a minimum of two hours of quality Physical Education (PE) per week.
She continued: “It’s something that I feel really passionately about as I've grown older and I've realised what I want to give back.”
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