Joey Barton has been crying all week about Mary Earps winning BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year, firing off a couple of Tweets in which he claimed the England Women’s Team goalkeeper did not deserve the award, and that he would score 100 out of 100 penalties against her.
That’s a bad penalty and she’s clearly off her line very early. No retake?
SPOTY for that! 🏆
Drop me out. 👍
— Joey Barton (@Joey7Barton) December 20, 2023
I’d score 100 out of 100 penalties against Mary Earps.
Any day of the week.
Twice on a fucking Sunday. 👍👑#perspective
— Joey Barton (@Joey7Barton) December 20, 2023
Anyone reading that second Tweet would have immediately predicted what would happen next (except maybe Joey himself), and sure enough Aussie businessman and football fan James Buckley has come forward to issue Barton a challenge.
Buckley is willing to bet $10,000 that Barton can’t put 100 goals past Earps, and now all that’s left is for Joey Barton to step up to the challenge:
Joey Barton….. I bet you $10,000 that you would not score 100 out of 100 penalties against Mary Earps.
If you do, I’ll give you the money.
If you don’t, I’ll donate the $10,000 you give me to a charity of Mary Earps choosing.
We have a deal? https://t.co/xErJihPGva
— JAKE BUCKLEY 🇦🇺 (@TheMasterBucks) December 21, 2023
At time of writing it’s been 8 hours and still not a peep from Joey Barton. Sure the guy is entitled to his opinion and all, but he really c0cked up by claiming he could score 100 penalty kicks in a row against Mary Earps, because now he has to prove it or he looks like a coward. He may even have to do it twice on a Sunday like he claimed he could. How did he not see this situation coming?
I know a lot of people will echo Joey Barton’s sentiments on women’s football and agree that there are loads more deserving winners of the 2023 SPOTY than Mary Earps, but at the end of the day, who cares? It’s just an award that the BBC came up with to create more content. If, for political reasons, they give the award to Mary Earps and that boosts the women’s game in some fashion or makes young girls around the UK feel good about themselves, then it’s really not a big deal.
For more Joey Barton, here he is discussing art with The Guardian. Lol.
