Lucy Roberta Tough Bronze. The clue is in the name, the second middle name, like the glue holding together an England team that prides itself on their spirit and resilience. Throughout Euro 2025, the oldest member of the squad has been its most relentless, and the source of much inspiration. “One of a kind,” says Sarina Wiegman. “A beast,” comments Ella Toone. “A freak,” adds Esme Morgan – the latter two very much intended as compliments. Bronze is where the Lionesses “get their grit and determination”, according to her 89-year-old gran back home in Northumberland.
The finest and perhaps defining player of her generation, it has been Bronze’s seventh major tournament for England where it has felt she has stepped into the role of living legend. Younger teammates are in awe of the leadership and passion, the drive and commitment to play back-to-back 120-minute games against Sweden and Italy. The longevity, too. Bronze will soon be standing on her own in another respect: the Euro 2025 final against Spain will be her 36th appearance at a major tournament, overtaking Jill Scott to hold the record for the most as an England player.
It is because of an unprecedented run of three finals in a row, to follow the near-misses in three consecutive semi-finals at World Cups and Euros before, and can be partly explained by Bronze’s shifting role within that. She has gone from England’s breakthrough star at the 2015 World Cup to their best player at the 2019 World Cup. Going from Euro 2022 and now into the bid to become the first England team to win back-to-back titles, Bronze stands as their most important individual on the pitch; she is no longer at her own peak, but has come to embody the fight within the collective.
At 33, Bronze is midway through what has arguably been her most decisive year in an England shirt – certainly, in terms of her four goals and three assists so far in 2025, it is already her most productive. She remains the fittest in the squad, the hardest trainer. Her work ethic has never been in doubt but energy has become infectious within the England camp. When the Lionesses are down, they look to Bronze, and her performance against Sweden will go down in folklore. “She just sort of put her shoulders back and played like, ‘I am not letting us go home’,” said Morgan.
Her motivation throughout the tournament has been simple. “I started playing football because I love it – when I loved it I wanted to work hard,” she said. “I will give anything and everything when I play in an England shirt, that’s my ‘why’.”
When Bronze was 12, she was banned from playing alongside boys with her team Alnwick Town Juniors, even though she was their best player. The FA ruled that she was at “unacceptable” risk of injury as the boys began to go through puberty.
But that decision lit a fire and started a journey that saw Bronze go on to win 139 England caps, winning five Champions Leagues and nine domestic league titles while playing for two of Europe’s biggest clubs in Barcelona and Lyon, and being named in the FifPro World XI on seven occasions.
In 2019, the finest year of Bronze’s career, it felt as if all of England’s attacking play and brightest moments flowed through her influence. Almost uniquely, Bronze could run a game from right-back, shaping it with her quality and drive. She finished runner-up to Megan Rapinoe in the 2019 Ballon d’Or and won the Silver Ball for being named the second-best player at the World Cup.
If England do beat Spain to win the Euros, it does not feel as if there would be the same clamour for Bronze to be recognised in that way in terms of individual awards. Perhaps that is unfair, and a reflection that an honour like the Ballon d’Or can often overlook the qualities Bronze has displayed in dragging England through the Euros, at times bending the tournament to her will through her stubborn refusal to be beaten.
“What defines her is that resilience, that fight,” Wiegman said after the win over Sweden, where Bronze created the iconic image of wrapping up her own leg after feeling tightness in her hamstring, only to then tear it off as she marched forward to take a penalty during the shootout. “She became a physio. She became a striker. She nailed the best penalty of the day,” Beth Mead said afterwards. “She did it all.”
“She’s someone who you listen to when she talks,” said Toone. If England win the Euros they will have done so after losing their opening game of the tournament. Following that France defeat, Bronze reminded her teammates that the Lionesses had also lost their first game at the 2015 World Cup, and still had a game-changing, transformative tournament.
It demonstrates how, 10 years on, Bronze’s influence comes from her example. The ability to dominate a flank through constant over-laps is no longer quite there. Against an opponent like Spain, there may be moments where Bronze is left exposed, as there were, crucially, in England’s World Cup final defeat in Sydney two years ago.
Bronze has not allowed that lapse to define her, though. Nor is there any need to talk about redemption. Bronze, after all, has nothing to prove, but there is still everything to fight for. Because when the going gets tough, the tough get going, by name and by nature.
England v Spain kicks off at 5pm, coverage is on ITV1 and BBC One
