Mary Earps issues perfect response to Joey Barton and Piers Morgan after SPOTY criticism

Mary Earps had the perfect response to Joey Barton and Piers Morgan's controversial comments after winning the Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) award.

The England goalkeeper picked up the award on Tuesday evening following her starring role in the Lionesses' run to the Women's World Cup final where she famously saved a penalty in their 1-0 defeat to Spain.

The 30-year-old, who also won the Golden Glove award for the best goalkeeper at the tournament, and became the second female footballer in succession to be named SPOTY, following on from fellow Lionesses and Arsenal forward Beth Mead.

But while many were over the moon for Earps' achievement, Piers Morgan was critical of the public's decision to vote for her.

Taking to Twitter, the 58-year-old wrote: "Trying to get my head around two of England's women footballers winning BBC SPOTY in successive years… while male sporting superstars with great personalities like Rory McIlroy, Frankie Dettori and Ronnie O'Sullivan have never won it.

“No offence to Ms Earps, but shouldn't it have been given to someone who actually won something in 2023?"

Meanwhile, Joey Barton, who has come under fire for his recent social media outbursts regarding women in football, also took aim at the event.

He tweeted: "So the best sports person this year is... A Women Goalie. Lost in a couple of finals this year. Not won a sausage. So popular that Nike didn’t even sell a replica jersey before tournament.

"You telling me all those who jumped on that bandwagon, haven’t voted in the BBC nonsense? Good luck to Mary. Hope she makes a few quid."

However, Earps had little interest in engaging in the debate, instead choosing to rise above her critics and post a video of her with the SPOTY trophy.

The Manchester United shot-stopper shared a six-second clip of herself dancing to the song Left, Right by rapper YG before grabbing the trophy and smiling as she waved it in front of the camera.

She captioned the post: “ BBC SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR 2023 BABY” accompanied by a heart and flame emoji.