Lucy Bronze Quotes

I want to go back to school, get my master’s, and do the accountancy thing at last. You know, get back to the dream. The real dream, that is, not the football dream.

Everyone who knows me knows that I always eat cake. My nutritionist hates it, but I just tell her I like to eat it, and she’s not going to stop me!

I played in the 2015 World Cup. I scored in two games; we got to the semi-finals and eventually ended up getting the bronze medal. That was a big turning point in my career, personally, and for English women’s football, too.

It’s probably the wrong way round, I know, but I just love maths and doing equations. When I was a kid, I was really good at it, so when I was seven, I asked my mum what job lets you do maths and pays you for it. She said accountancy, and that was it. I was dead set.

I wanna play until I am 45 if my body will let me. After football, I have no idea.

I think it’s good that the womens’ game is being pushed, and maybe the men can look at our game every now and then and learn something from the way we approach the game.

I don’t feel like congratulating myself, because I know there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

I’ve done quite a bit in England. I’ve won the majority of trophies and awards that there is to win, apart from top goalscorer… which is hard as a defender.

Moving out and living on my own was a big thing, but to be in a different country with different coaches and a different mentality changed me as a person, as a player, the way I think about things and the way I see people.

You cannot win a game of football on your own; it’s about the entire squad working together to achieve something. That’s how football works: it has always been about the group, not the individual.

I just want to challenge myself all the time.

I never had a problem with the people I was close to because I was playing football with them, and they knew I could play. It didn’t matter that I was a girl.

I stay somewhere for a couple of years and then think, ‘What next?’ I find it easier to challenge myself by going to different clubs, environments, and playing with different players.

I just don’t have that natural instinct to be able to let my guard down and start speaking to people. I never have – I’ve always been a bit socially awkward, even with people I’ve known for a long time.

At Sunderland, all the girls knew each other. I wasn’t that extroverted person to go join in. I was a little bit in my shell. But as soon as I started kicking a football, it was fine.

If I could, I’d change the way I came up through the football ranks. I’d love to have had an academy life the way the boys have it. I think female footballers would be so much better for having that opportunity, and we’d be more effective because we would be better players.

I turned up for my first day training with England Under-19s super excited, and I just happened to bang my knee on the floor, and it just blew up. It turned out that I’d completely snapped it in half.

We want to change the way people think about England teams. At the men’s tournaments, we haven’t exceeded expectations, and it’s the same with the women’s. If we can change that, it could have a knock-on effect, even for the men’s team.

When I first signed a contract with a women’s team, my contract stated that if I played, I would get 100 pounds, and if I didn’t play, it would be zero.

When I went to my first FA Cup final, we had to pack bags in Tesco to raise enough money for a bus to London. Now, I own a house.

I remember, when I was at Sunderland, we made the FA Cup final and played in front of 20,000 at Derby.

The players in the England team, the majority of us didn’t play more than twice a week until we were 20. The younger girls are training more than that now, so in 10 years’ time, when they take over from us, the quality will be so much higher. That’s what I’d like to see.

I didn’t dream of joining Man City as a professional one day, or representing England, because I didn’t know that was even possible.

I don’t call myself a women’s footballer; I say I’m a footballer.

I like where I lived in Alnwick; I always tell people about it. There’s so much to do there, even though it’s so small and quaint.

I think because of how big the women’s teams at Lyon and PSG are, the expectation on the team and the huge fan base – it leaves the door open for so much media. But I think that’s a good thing.

I’ve got a little vegetable patch in my garden. I moved from a city apartment into a house this year and needed something to do outside football.

That’s something I learned at Lyon: how humble and grounded the best players in the world are. They’re always wanting more. At Lyon, they’re winners. At England, it’s the same.

I thought I was going to stay at City, but when a team like Lyon comes in for you, I think I’d have regretted it if I had said no to them. Not just because of making finals, but because of the players I get to play with every single day.

It’s a rite of passage for all women to make sure the next generation is in a better place than you. I will play my part.

I can’t do tricks, but I absolutely loved trying, and one of my fondest memories growing up was trying to imitate Ronaldinho and do his dance.

I started on the phones, taking orders, and then I did the toppings, making the pizzas, cutting and boxing them – everything, really.

I’ve had four knee surgeries in my career. I just don’t do small injuries. The highs of winning are always balanced out by the lows of being injured and missing games. There was a time when I was out for nearly a year, having already been out for six months with another surgery before that.

It’s always lovely to win trophies, have nice things said about you, and be nominated for individual awards. But I feel I can give more – a lot more – to both Lyon and England, and that is definitely my focus.

My father is Portuguese, and in Portugal, it is traditional to take your mother’s maiden name as a middle name. My mum is called Tough.

For England, I play centre-half. I enjoy it. You face all the best strikers in the world. I enjoy the challenge.

The one thing in the world that I can’t do without is my glasses. I don’t really care about my laptop, I never answer my phone, and I don’t care about trainers and stuff. But I’m pretty blind without my glasses or contact lenses.

I think it’s a thing in France, and I think you see it a little bit in Spain with Atletico: the countries and the cities just absolutely love their football. It’s not because they’re just marketing geniuses; it’s because they’ve made it simple.

From my family, my mum, auntie and nan were all strong women and why I am who I am today.

I played with the likes of Kelly Smith, Rachel Yankey, and Fara Williams – all these great players. Everybody knew who they were, and I was turning into one of these girls who were always my heroes.