da esoccer bet： Winning a second FIFA Best Women’s Player award is no priority for Lucy Bronze, with the England international focused on collective glory.
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Best player on the planet in 2020European Championship winnerDetermined to land World CupWHAT HAPPENED?
The Euro 2022 winner earned the honour of being named best player on the planet back in 2020. She finished as runner-up in the Ballon d’Or Feminin vote a few months prior to that and has continued to star for club and country in the years since.
AdvertisementGettyWHAT BRONZE SAID
Bronze is now on the books of Barcelona, having bid farewell to the WSL, and graced the Women’s World Cup final in 2023. She sits among the global elite, but has told FIFA’s official website of placing little emphasis on individual recognition: “I think everyone has an ambition to be the best player in the world. But right now I just want to be the best player that I can be. I'm very fortunate that ‘the best player I can be’ was at that level (of The Best), and that gets a little bit more difficult when you're carrying more injuries and things like that. For me, I just want to keep producing for my club and for England, and to keep winning things. Recognition is fantastic. But I would trade every single one of those individual awards, as lovely as they are, for a World Cup.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Bronze was named in the FIFA FIFPRO World 11 for 2023, making that selection for the sixth time, and added on earning recognition from her peers: “The awards that are voted for by players you play with, or you play against, always feel the best. I think players have a different point of view to fans or media, or even to managers. You come off the pitch and you think, ‘That was a tough game. She's hard to play against.’ Or you say to the other girls: ‘How good was she today?’ They’re the conversations we have as players, and it’s great to think that you’ve maybe been talked about that way in other dressing rooms. That’s what makes this such a special accolade for me.”
GettyWHAT NEXT FOR BRONZE?
Helping to put England in contention for more major honours will keep Bronze at the very top of the game, while domestic and continental trophies are expected to fall within reach while forming part of the star-studded Barcelona squad that continues to sweep aside all before it.