Lucy Bronze: ‘Barcelona made me sing Sweet Caroline. My toes were curling’

Lucy Bronze is dismissive of reports in Spain about whether she will actually be able to play for Barcelona after signing for the club before England’s victorious Euros campaign.

There had been concerns that, in the absence of a new agreement between the Spanish football federation, the league and Fifpro, leaving the rules on the registration of non-EU players in the air, Bronze would not be able to be registered.

Besides the fact that under existing rules Barcelona can register two non-EU players, the assumption that Bronze was becoming a Brexit casualty was wrong regardless, given she is half Portuguese.

“I have a Portuguese ID card,” the right-back says, clearly bemused by the fuss. “I am half English, half Portuguese. I’m not playing anyone, my dad’s literally Portuguese and my mum’s literally English. So I can get my Portuguese passport whenever I want.”

She is fiercely proud of her Portuguese heritage and has spoken about it many times. In April she posted a video of herself to TikTok which made light of her only being referred to as English despite her dual heritage.

Bronze speaks Portuguese, having been brought up bilingual, and is fluent in French after three years with Lyon. Now she is learning Spanish.

“They were all really surprised that I’d already taken some Spanish lessons off my own back,” says Bronze, who is back at England’s St George’s Park training base for their final World Cup qualifiers against Austria and Luxembourg. “Having already played abroad, I know it’s so important to be able to communicate. I want to speak to everyone, I want to be friends with everyone, so it’s important that I learn.”

At Barcelona, Catalan is also in the mix. “I’m not learning Catalan – that’s too difficult; sorry to