Mary Earps & the big-name stars who threw a tantrum after missing a major tournament | OneFootball

Former Lionesses goalkeeper Mary Earps has caused a stir by giving precise details on how she came to the decision to retire from international duty.

She’s not the first big-name player to admit that missing a major tournament has been hard to move on from.

Here are seven footballers who found it difficult to get over being left out of a major international competition.

Mary Earps

One of the faces of the Lionesses’ Euro 2022 triumph, Earps has spoken honestly about coming to terms with falling behind Hannah Hampton in Sarina Wiegman’s pecking order when they retained the trophy three years later.

The PSG ‘keeper and BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner has tried to strike a diplomatic tone, insisting that there’s “no bad blood” and that she still has a “tremendous amount of respect” for Wiegman.

But you don’t need to read between the lines to see she has misgivings about how the situation was handled.

“It felt like something was off,” Earps reflected in her tell-all interview with The Guardian.

“You can’t put your finger on it and there’s nothing majorly wrong, like no one’s speaking to you in a crazy way or being mean to you. But you just feel this isn’t how it used to be.”

Rather than go to the tournament as a back-up squad player, she decided to retire from international football entirely – just a month before the tournament got underway.

“I don’t know how those conversations would have gone. But a big dynamic at play was making the situation untenable,” she added.

Diego Maradona

El Diego’s role in Argentina’s 1986 World Cup is the stuff of footballing folklore.

Few, if any, footballers in history have ever quite reached the mythical heights Maradona reached at Mexico ’86.

But he might’ve won two World Cups. This is a unique case because it came at the beginning of Maradona’s career, rather than at the end.

Resentment at being left out of Argentina’s 1978 squad, their first World Cup, is something that he took to his grave.

Legendary Argentina coach Cesar Luis Menotti reasoned that playing in a World Cup on home soil would’ve been too much pressure for a 17-year-old.

Ultimately, Menotti was vindicated by the more experienced Mario Kempes playing a talismanic role, scoring two goals in the final against the Netherlands.

“There, when I was left out of the 22-man list, ‘because I was too young,’ I started to realise that anger was a fuel for me,” Maradona reflected in his autobiography.

Who knows if he’d have become the player he was if it wasn’t for that early motivation?

Paul Gascoigne

Gascoigne’s reaction to being told by Glenn Hoddle that he wouldn’t make England’s squad for France ’98 will live forever in Three Lions infamy.

Hoddle admitted it was a difficult decision, given the mercurial playmaker’s iconic performances at Italia ’90 and Euro ’96, but he just wasn’t fit enough. Gascoigne couldn’t control his emotions and smashed up Hoddle’s hotel room in response.

“I’m trying to get over the disappointment of not making it to the 22 and of course coming to terms with it and I will miss youse,” Gazza wrote in an open letter to England’s World Cup squad, published in The Sun.

“I feel I’ve let youse down because of two nights out with pals.

“But I don’t see how one kebab can be the difference between beating one or three men or running from box to box or scoring a goal.

“I wanted [my son] Regan to see me play for England in the World Cup – now I don’t know if he’ll ever see me in an England shirt again. That breaks my heart.

“I’m so fed up. I’m trying hard to smile but you won’t see the laughing and joking Gazza for a long while.

“The worst thing is the embarrassment. I can see pity in everybody’s eyes in the street.”

Gutting.

Carlos Tevez

Call this one a pre-emptive strike.

Having not played for his country since missing a penalty against Uruguay at the 2011 Copa America, it wasn’t a surprise to see Tevez omitted from Argentina’s 2014 World Cup squad.

The striker’s relationship with successive managers, captain Lionel Messi, and his (lack of) place in the set-up, was a long-running talking point in the Argentinian media throughout the 2010s.

“I don’t think I will be with my national team at the World Cup,” Tevez said ahead of Alejandro Sabella’s squad announcement.

“I’ve already bought tickets to go with my wife and my three children to Disney World.

“They deserve this trip and I have been very clear in my mind where my place in. Things are as they are and that’s that.”

Didn’t want to go anyway. So there.

David Ginola

Undoubtedly one of the best French footballers of the 1990s, Ginola’s international career was sadly defined by a costly mistake in qualifying for USA ’94.

Former Les Bleus boss Gerard Houllier blamed the forward for giving the ball away before Bulgaria’s last-minute winner.

“It’s a very sad souvenir for me,” Ginola reflected years later.

“It had an impact on my future as a player for my country. That’s why I didn’t play in the World Cup in France in 1998. But apart from that, what can I say? What’s done is done.”

Houllier and Ginola’s feud continued for years to come, and even after a change in management the former PSG, Tottenham and Newcastle superstar was left out in the cold.

He watched his compatriots lift the trophy in Paris while working as a pundit for the BBC.

“It was like stealing a dream from a kid. They stole my dream. Simple as that,” Ginola added.

Ouch.

Karim Benzema

“He [Deschamps] has bowed to the pressure of a racist part of France,” Benzema told Spanish newspaper Marca in 2016.

“He has to know that in France the extremist party reached the second round in the last two elections.

“I do not know, therefore, whether it is a decision only for Didier because I’ve gotten along with him, with the president, everyone. I do not have a problem with anyone. I am with France and wish them well.”

The official reason for Benzema being left out of Les Bleus’ Euro 2016, which was hosted by France, was the legal shadow hanging over the Real Madrid superstar for his alleged role in blackmailing team-mate Mathieu Valbuena.

He struck a more zen tone in the following years, insisting he had no hard feelings about missing out on lifting the World Cup while still exiled two years later.

“It is what it is and it must be respected,” he told French TV show Quotidien.

“I saw the final in Lyon at my mom’s house — with my family. Because I’m close to Varane I was happy! I would have loved to be there, which is normal for any footballer passionate for the game.

“I’ve had my great moments in Real Madrid, but it’s also good that they [France] won this World Cup. I don’t have a single regret.”

Even after the striker’s inflammatory accusations, Deschamps eventually recalled Benzema back into the fold for Euro 2020. Water under the bridge, apparently.

Samir Nasri

French footballers live for the drama, eh?

Nasri was somewhere around the peak of his powers in 2014, having just won his second Premier League title with Manchester City, when Deschamps opted against including him in Les Bleus’ 30-man squad for the World Cup in Brazil.

“F*ck france and f*ck deschamps! What a shit manager,” tweeted Nasri’s girlfriend Anara Atanes (yes, the same one who gave us the ‘Drip Doctors’ saga years later – thank you for your services to social media).

“Lets just get this straight! Im not mad i get my bf for 2 months…. I just think theres a level of respect to be had!”

Deschamps filed a civil lawsuit against Atanes, while Nasri dug his heels in.

“I have just turned 27, but let’s be honest, as long as Deschamps is the manager I don’t think I have a shot after everything that has happened,”

“In 2016 I will be 29 and will have a chance to play in the European Championship in France but the French national team doesn’t make me happy.

“Every time I go there, there is just more trouble. I face accusations about myself, and my family suffers from it. I don’t want to make them suffer so it is better to stop it and focus on my club career.”

Sure enough, he never represented his country again.