Mary Earps has only gone and done it. To top off an incredible year that’s included a World Cup penalty save, some standout facial expressions and a truckload of awards, the Lioness and Manchester United goalkeeper was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2023 at last night’s (19 December) ceremony.

It was a result we weren’t surprised to see after the whirlwind of success she’s seen over the last couple of years, but that doesn’t make the win any less impressive.

Not only did she take home the Golden Glove award at this year’s World Cup, but Earps claimed the title of Fifa’s best goalkeeper for 2022 and has recently been named among the final three nominees for this year’s award too. Her World Cup goalkeeper kit sold out within minutes when it went on sale earlier this month, something that only came about due to pressure on Nike from Earps and her supporters after the company refused to sell the kit in its first release of World Cup shirts.  

And Earps’s success isn’t just personally significant, either. The win marks the second year in a row a Lioness has won the award (Beth Mead took home the trophy last year), and the third year in a row that a woman has claimed the prize – the first time there has been such a sequence since the 1960s.

“It has been an incredible couple of years, and I just feel really, really grateful to have been given an opportunity to fulfil my wildest dreams,” Earps said at the ceremony. “It is beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I cannot believe I am standing up here – and I had a long walk in this dress and these heels. It’s a bit ridiculous.”

Accepting the award, she added: “It feels pretty great off the back of a couple of really big years and 2023 has been wild in ways I couldn’t expect. I’m really, really grateful.”

Online, some people have been trying to claim that Earps doesn’t deserve her win – as if all the evidence presented above (which, by the way, is just the tip of the iceberg) isn’t enough proof of her success. 

But luckily enough, there are also plenty of people out there celebrating Earps’s win and spotlighting the incredible run she and the Lionesses have had over the last couple of years. Here are just a few of our favourite reactions to the win.

Images: Getty