The Lionesses’ secret weapon against France ...Middle East

ZURICH — When the sun sets over its 16th-century castle, there is a glow about Holy Island that makes it one of the most picturesque places in England.

With just 150 permanent residents, growing up there can put you at a slight remove from the rest of the north-east. Many years ago, Lucy Bronze was among them, which may help to explain her readiness to spend so much of the peak of her career at a distance.

In 2017, the Lionesses right-back became one of the most high-profile English players to quit the Women’s Super League. As she walked under the steep arches of Lyon airport, she could not speak any French.

That would soon change. It was not her first stint abroad or her last – she attended college in North Carolina, playing for the university’s Tar Heels team and later joined Barcelona – but it was her most successful. She would go on to win the Champions League three times, alongside three French titles and another three cups.

Of the current France side, who will play England in their Euro 2025 opener on Saturday, she knows many of them personally.

“I just like when I play against a team where I’ve lived because I know what they’re saying,” Bronze laughs.

“So if they’re shouting something on the pitch, I can just say it, translate it in English and they’re like, can’t say nothing. Whereas everybody knows English. So yeah, it’s nice to be able to do that to the other team and obviously players that I’ve played with, who I don’t really see regularly, that’s always nice to see them. But I think the language thing is the funniest.”

It is a match-up that ordinarily would have pitted Bronze against a long-term friend and former colleague in Wendie Renard. Then came the bombshell from France’s squad announcement: the legendary centre-back was being left at home.

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Renard called it an “injustice”. Bronze believes it is certainly a “shock”.

“She’s the epitome of what I would describe as a captain figure. When I was at Lyon, everything she did as a person and as a player, there was nothing you could fault. I’m sure she’d be devastated not to be part of the Euros, knowing what she’s like.

“The manager obviously went a different way, not just with Wendie, but with [record goalscorer] Eugenie Le Sommer, someone I know really well, and Kenza Dali [who were also left out]. I guess that’s how football works sometimes.”

Are France weaker without Renard? Perhaps, but Bronze would rather test herself against the best.

“I want Wendie to be playing, defending corners and I can jump over and hit the ball. Winning a header over Wendie Renard, that’s an achievement!”

There will be familiar faces aplenty, nonetheless. Bronze describes Griedge Mbock Bathy as her favourite centre-back to play alongside. Some, like Selma Bacha and Alice Sombath, were teenagers when she left France, but she rates the former as “one of the best left-backs in the world”.

“From day one, she was just flying tackles in. I remember a few players, Wendie especially, had to calm her down a few times. But she was always very fiery from a very young age, very talented, very headstrong.”

Of Sombath, she insists: “As much as she’s inexperienced in terms of caps for France and her age, she’s been in and around a very successful Lyon team for seven years. She’s probably got more maturity than I guess people might give her credit for.”

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Yet the duel she is perhaps best prepared for comes against Marie-Antoinette Katoto, whom she faced many times during the forward’s decade at Paris Saint-Germain. France have arguably the best front three in the world and Bronze will be part of an England defence tasked with stopping them as they attempt to win back-to-back Euros.

None of this was inevitable. It is easily forgotten that this is a full-back who snapped her knee on her first day of training as an England U19. She was told she could have lost a leg.

By 2013, she was in the senior team but did not make an appearance as England crashed out of the group stages at that summer’s disastrous European Championship.

Four years on, Lyon handpicked her off the back of a superb spell at Manchester City and turned her into a Ballon d’Or nominee and the Women’s Player of the Year – the first defender to win the award.

Everything that has happened in the 33-year-old’s career since has been the result of dedication, perseverance and perhaps above all, a willingness to step out of her comfort zone. This year, Bronze spoke for the first time about her autism and ADHD diagnoses, having always known that she felt “different”.

Now it is something she is learning to embrace. She is in a unique position in this England side, a French-speaker who plays for a French manager (Sonia Bompastor) and on Saturday, she could well come up against her Chelsea teammate, winger Sandy Baltimore. She already has a plan to deal with her.

“Whisper in her ear! Nothing in English!

“I already knew who she was before because she was at PSG. I used to play against her at Lyon. She’s a very talented dribbler of the ball, really good left foot, good pace, and someone that I know quite well.”

In her seventh major tournament overall, the Euros has come to know Lucy Bronze well too. But in an England squad with seven tournament debutants, she remains timeless.

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