BASEL – By the end of England’s European Championship celebrations, the majority of the players were rattling through the corridors of St. Jakob-Park with a boombox. Lucy Bronze edged a little more tentatively away from the pitch, revealing she had played the entire tournament with a fractured tibia.
The 33-year-old hobbled onto the team bus with the same strapping around her leg that had characterised her decisive penalty against Sweden. “If there was anyone to do it, it would have been her,” joked Niamh Charles, as the full-back conceded the rest of the England team knew about Bronze’s injury.
Against Spain, Bronze broke the record for the most appearances for the Lionesses in a major tournament with 36. “She is an absolute nutter,” said Beth Mead. “But she loves her country. She loves playing for her country, putting on that shirt, and Lucy was outstanding this tournament.”
Charles suggested Bronze was the definition of the team motto which came to define this tournament: “Proper English.” It did not always seem that way when she struggled against France and faced calls for her to be dropped for the decisive second group game against the Netherlands, but then she has not looked back.
In a team training session after that opening night horrorshow, Bronze pulled the team together and recalled when she had been part of the side that lost the first game at the 2019 World Cup against France.
Since then, she has epitomised the Bronze spirit that saw her write a new chapter of her WSL career at Chelsea after leaving Barcelona and the fact she managed 105 minutes before being replaced by Charles was another testament to a character who is determined to play on to the 2027 World Cup in Brazil.
“I have no words,” said Jess Carter afterwards. “I don’t even know. She’s incredible. I don’t know. Also so stubborn to continue playing when she can’t run or walk. She’ll find a way through. Stubborn is the first thing. But she’s a winner and winning is in her DNA. That’s what she wants to do. We all know that she’ll give absolutely everything for this team.”
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Bronze first found out about her injury after the Portugal game before the tournament but kept it a close secret beyond her immediate circle and Sarina Wiegman.
It is little wonder then, that her colleagues consider her a “freak”, in the words of Esme Morgan, due to her “passion, energy, fight”.
Perhaps Wiegman was alluding to something when she joked after the Sweden quarter-final in which Bronze scored the decisive penalty: “Lucy Bronze is just one of a kind… What defines her is that resilience, that fight. I think the only way to get her off the pitch is in a wheelchair.”
After a treble and a Euros, she now has to be a serious candidate for the Ballon d’Or, if it is indeed to be judged by the number of club trophies won. She was named runner-up six years ago but now deserves to be in the reckoning again.
Bronze has lit up this tournament with her love of Maths – the key to deciding the right spot statistically for her penalty against Sweden – and the moment beforehand when she strapped up her own leg. It was clear she was struggling through injury, yet until victory over Spain nobody knew the severity.
There is now a serious argument to be had that Bronze is England’s greatest ever Lioness. Certainly nobody has come close in terms of resilience and perseverance. So often Bronze has been written off and she has risen to triumph again – for the second time she is a champion of Europe and nobody deserves it more.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/gARzWwp
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