Earnshaw was born on the outskirts of the Zambian mining town of Mufulira on 6 April 1981 to Rita and English-born father David Earnshaw.
He is one of five children
His mother was a professional footballer in Zambia and later became a boxer and his father was a manager of a gold mine
His uncle Fidelis was also a professional footballer who played for Nkana and two of his cousins, Kalusha and Johnson Bwalya, represented Zambia at international level
Kalusha later went on to become president of the Football Association of Zambia
When Earnshaw was five, his family moved to Malawi where his father, took charge of a coal mine and his youngest son began attending St. Andrews School in Lilongwe.
He went on to attend Viphya School where he was taught the Chewa language, already being able to speak Bemba and English
In 1990, Earnshaw’s father contracted typhoid fever and died in May of that year
Earnshaw’s youth team, GE Wales, played their home matches in Treforest on a pitch nearby to the youth team base of Cardiff City
On 6 July 2011, Earnshaw rejoined boyhood club Cardiff City on a free transfer,