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Bronze dreams of golden summer for England in her adopted France
LYON, June 4, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – From the moment she signed for Lyon in 2017,
Lucy Bronze admits there is one thing she has not been able to get out of her
mind.
“From that second it was always in the back of my mind every time I go on
the pitch, every time I play a game for Lyon, that England could be playing
the final of the World Cup and lifting the trophy on the field,” the England
star tells AFP Sport.
Bronze is speaking at Lyon’s training ground, which the club’s men’s and
women’s teams share, next door to the 58,000-seat Groupama Stadium.
It will be a fitting venue for this year’s World Cup semi-finals and final.
After all, Lyon can already lay claim to being the global capital of women’s
football.
They have just won a fourth consecutive Champions League, destroying
Barcelona 4-1 in the final. They monopolise the French league.
Bronze, 27, is confident her dream can come true, with Phil Neville’s
England arriving in France as genuine contenders. Defeats in the semi-finals
at the last World Cup and Euros have left the Lionesses determined to take
the extra step.
– ‘Hunger’ –
“I know people argue that we haven’t won anything yet, but I think
sometimes it is harder when you have won it, to keep getting that hunger,
whereas we have that hunger,” says Bronze, formerly of Everton, Liverpool and
Manchester City.
For England, the road that Bronze hopes will lead back to her adopted home
in Lyon starts on the Cote d’Azur on Sunday when they play Scotland in Nice.
Their 6-0 win over the same opponents in their first game at the Euros
suggests they will take some beating again.
Scotland will want revenge, but it is not an occasion to faze Bronze, who
comes from Berwick-upon-Tweed, a north-east English town so close to the
border that the local men’s club play in the Scottish leagues.
“It’s the old rivalry. Maybe it means a lot more to Scotland because it was
their first tournament, their first World Cup. For them it was a really big
thing,” Bronze says of the 6-0 game.
“They want to beat us, and we want to beat them, but ultimately it is
another game at the World Cup.”
The match comes at a time of ongoing political crisis in the UK due to
Brexit.
Scotland voted to remain in the European Union, while England voted to
leave. However, Bronze’s background and her decision to move to France
provide clues to her own views.
“My Dad is Portuguese, I live in France, I love Europe. A lot of people my
age want to stay in Europe, for the future of England,” she says.
“It’s not something that I wanted to see happen.
“Our country is great, but it doesn’t mean we don’t need to rely on other
people.”
– ‘Long way to go’ for women’s game –
Sunday’s game between the two rivals will give Bronze a first taste of the
atmosphere at a World Cup which follows a year in which huge crowds have
become a regular feature of women’s matches.
“You watch the men and how the fans are and how it really pushes on the
players and it changes games,” she says.
Bronze, who persisted with football despite her mother’s efforts to convert
her to tennis, has gone on to become an outstanding right-back, although she
does also play in midfield for England.
She has seen the women’s game grow exponentially in recent years.
“I look over the past five or 10 years and I wouldn’t think I would be sat
here today talking about all these crazy fans, the stadiums, the World Cup,
the way I am. But at the same time we have a long, long way still to go,” she
says as she contemplates the differences between men’s and women’s football.
“No sport can compare to what the Premier League, La Liga, the Champions
League are doing. It is a crazy business that they have now.”
Lyon are one of the main driving forces in growing the women’s game. Bronze
describes moving to France as “a no-brainer”, but once the World Cup is over,
might she be tempted to return home?
“I do think I’ll be moving back to England at some point. It’s great being
in Lyon and I love the girls, I love playing for the team, winning the
Champions League.
“I came here to do that — but I think it would be amazing to win the
Champions League with an English club.”
Before that her focus is entirely on the pursuit of World Cup glory.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0822 hrs