Lucy Bronze: ‘I had offers from Lyon and Barça, the world’s best teams’

After Lucy Bronze signed for Barcelona last Saturday, her phone pinged. It was the Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas, who had succeeded Bronze as Fifa’s The Best player of the year in 2021.

“Alexia texted me saying she’s so excited to play with me on the team,” Bronze says. “Things like that give you huge confidence when players want to play with you and teams want you. Who doesn’t like being told they’re good? It gives you confidence and confidence plays a huge role in how you perform.”

Bronze’s return to Manchester City after a trophy-laden spell with Lyon had not been quite as fairytale as the right-back had perhaps hoped. In two years back in Manchester, some of which was blighted by injury, she won the FA Cup shortly after her return and the Continental League Cup last season. The dream of winning the Champions League with City looks as far off as it did when she left for Lyon: City crashed out of qualifying to Real Madrid last season and lost in the quarter-finals to Barcelona the season before.

Last month, after City scraped past Manchester United into the third Champions League space after a terrible start put them out of the title race before it had properly begun, Bronze’s agent’s phone was ringing.

“I had offers from Lyon and Barça, the two best teams in the world,” she says. “It wasn’t bad to be able to pick from that and make my decision. It gives me loads of confidence as a player knowing that these big teams who are so successful want to sign me, want me to play, know that I can make a difference to their team.”

It was not a wrench to leave the Women’s Super League again. “I didn’t really think about it, to be honest,” says Bronze. “I knew I wanted to play abroad again. I think honestly my experience at