England rejection to Euros glory - Bronze in her own words

The Football Interview is a new series in which the biggest names in sport and entertainment join host Kelly Somers for bold and in-depth conversations about the nation's favourite sport.

We'll explore mindset and motivation, and talk about defining moments, career highs and personal reflections. The Football Interview brings you the person behind the player.

Interviews will drop on across BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website. This week's interview will be broadcast on BBC One (except in Wales) from 15:40 GMT on Saturday, 6 September.

Lucy Bronze is England's most decorated female footballer.

Capped 140 times and a two-time European champion, Bronze has played for the Lionesses at seven major tournaments.

The right-back featured in every game in the successful Euro 2022 campaign - and again three years later as England retained their crown in Switzerland.

At club level, Bronze has won five Champions League titles, the Women's Super League four times, and was part of Chelsea's Treble-winning squad last season.

The 33-year-old sat down with Kelly Somers to talk about winning Euro 2025, playing the entire tournament with a fractured leg, plus being rejected by England as a youngster and her proud Portuguese heritage.

Kelly Somers: What does football mean to you?

Lucy Bronze: I guess it has changed throughout the years. When I was younger, it was everything to me. I maybe put a bit too much on it. I have never seen it as a job, I'll be honest, but what it means to me now has changed. There is football as in the football that I do, and there is the football that I am a part of, which is the big picture. That means a lot to me now.

KS: Your career has gone in parallel with the growth of women's football. At first you just played football but now it seems like it is a bit of a movement?

LB: I always say I am so fortunate that my career has been on the same trajectory as women's football in England. 2015 was when I had my moment. It was also the moment for England football and the WSL was kicking off. Each tournament the stage is getting bigger, and the football is getting bigger in line with my career. I have always felt quite lucky to be on the same journey as women's football.

KS: What is your first memory of playing the game?

LB: I played with my big brother - that's why I started. When I was younger, people would be like: 'Is his sister coming?' And he would be like: 'Yeah she is, and she's going to be on my team because she is good.' He never had a problem with it. He would never let me win anything - if I won it was because I earned it. But I never had that barrier of 'girls can't play' or 'it's not girls' football' because my family and my brother were some of the best examples of it.

KS: Who had a big impact on your career football-wise?

LB: The very first one was Ray Smith, who was my Alnwick Town coach. When I was in the boys' team, he was a painter and decorator, then helped with the team on the weekends. Just your local volunteer in grassroots football. And at 12, the FA were like, 'Lucy can't play in the boys' team any more. It's part of the rules'. My mum was like, 'Well, she's got nowhere else to go. We can't take her anywhere. We can't afford to take her anywhere'. So Ray went up to my mum, and was like, 'Please find Lucy a team - she'll play for England one day.' At 12 years old.

KS: What has been a turning point in your career? I'm almost wondering if maybe that conversation is it?

LB: A huge turning point for me was going to America. When my mum Googled women's football, the USA came up. College, Mia Hamm, World Cup, Olympic champions - everything to do with women's football was USA. So she was like, 'OK, let's go'. So she said to all the family: 'Let's go to the States next summer. We'll save up, and if this is your dream, we're going to take you, and we're going to see if it's a possibility.' This is in the time of Bend it like Beckham . So it was a hot topic at the time, going to America. I went to the soccer camp and the coach there saw me play, and he said: 'When she's old enough, she should come back and she's got a scholarship.' So I went back because England rejected me. Going to America and going to college, I only stayed for a year, but that was the biggest turning point.

KS: Talk to me about England rejecting you?

LB: I was in the youth age groups, but I was never the star player, or the one that was picked out. They used to give out scholarships and funding to help players, and I never got picked for anything. They had a programme for Loughborough where you could train full-time and study. At my age group, either you went there or you went to Arsenal's academy and I was the only one who wasn't in either of them. I applied for Loughborough, and they were like, 'She's just not good enough'. My mum rang them back to ask what it is that she needs to improve on, and just never got the call back. So then my mum was like, 'Right, America, let's go. Let's do it'.

KS: If you could relive one match, what would it be?

LB: If I could relive a moment just to feel the moment again, I think it would be 2015 playing in the World Cup. That was my second tournament, but it's my first time playing, and the fourth game was the first moment I took the right-back spot from Alex Scott. I scored a really good goal, and England went through, and I always say that was the moment my career was like, 'I've arrived'.

KS: You could have picked some matches from the summer. When we think of Lucy Bronze and Euro 2025, we think 'My goodness, she won a major tournament with a broken leg'. How on earth do you do that?

LB: I just knew I was in pain. I'd been in pain for a month nearly and I just couldn't put my finger on what it was. It wasn't making sense and people were like, 'It can't be broken... you won't be able to play... you'd be in too much pain'. Then it was when I mentioned it to the England doctor who's known me for 10 years and he was like, 'You're telling me you're in pain, that does not make sense to me. We need to check this'. That's when we found out. I think finding out was a relief because I knew what it was, but the first game I had to play with it, I was like, 'Now that I know this is a bit weird'. By the time the prep camps came, I wasn't in training. and people were like, 'Why are you not in training?' and I was like, 'I've got a broken leg, but I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. I'll play'."

KS: In the quarter-final penalty shootout against Sweden, you weren't one of the first penalty takers. Did you want to take one?

LB: We get asked before the tournament which penalty would we be happy to take. And I'm always like, 'Whatever you want me to take, whatever you want me to do, I will do that. If it's first, last whatever'. Normally we practise penalties at the end of training, but I was never in the end of training because of my leg. So I was seventh. I was thinking, 'I'm probably not going to take one' so I'm stood in the line the whole time cheering on the girls, keeping them focused. I'm just trying to give them my energy and confidence because in my head, I didn't think I was going to take one.

KS: But you didn't take the penalty like you were someone who was expecting not to take one...

LB: Well it wasn't the best penalty shootout, we all knew that, and there were nerves. I remember looking down the line and thinking, 'Wow there are so many young players in this team'. So when I did have to take the penalty I was like, 'I've got this'.

KS: Fast forward to the end of the tournament, what went through your mind when you had done it again?

LB: I don't know because maybe I am super confident with England and when we went to the penalties I already had the feeling that we had won it Just because of what we went through with Sweden, I knew that Spain hadn't gone through that and experience counts for a lot in those moments. Being the seventh penalty taker, I just had full confidence in the girls on the pitch, shouting and screaming and celebrating because I knew it was going to happen. I had confidence in Hannah [Hampton] and the girls, so when it actually went in it wasn't a bigger wow moment for me because I was like, 'Yeah, of course we were going to win the shootout'.

KS: Let's learn more about Lucy Bronze away from the pitch. I am taking you back to your childhood, and there has been a lot said about your full name - Lucia Roberta Tough Bronze. Everyone is talking about the 'Tough' - it is quite apt isn't it? You have shown it your whole career.

LB: It's my mum's maiden name, so the English side of the family. The people I am closest to on my mum's side are my nan, my auntie and obviously my mum. The three main women - they are the Tough women. My auntie was a policewoman and my mum was a maths teacher, so Tough by name, tough by nature. They tell me stories about their work and how they had to find a way, especially as a woman, to be successful. I have been brought up by that. Yeah, it is my name, but I have inherited the tough women of my life, who have lived it as well. I had no other option but to be like that.

KS: Your dad is Portuguese. Do you consider yourself half Portuguese?

LB: The only reason I was born in England was because my mum's dad passed away the week before. So we flew back to England and I was born on the day of his funeral. We ended up staying in England but that was never the plan. We used to go back to Portugal every single time we had a break. The kids in school were like, 'You're going to Portugal again?'. We very much spent Christmases there, summers there, and half-terms there. We spent a lot of time in Portugal growing up.

KS: You are passionate about the future of the game and are on a Professional Footballers' Association board. You give back quite a lot...

LB: I try to. I got to a certain point, my mum said to me: "When you say something, people listen." I don't think I realised that because I was that shy girl but when I got into my 20s my mum said: "They'll listen to you, you can speak up now." I put myself forward for every player board known to women's football. And I just want to help people, and why not.

KS: Is there any one example of you going out your way to help someone?

LB: The GB deaf football team will go to the Deaf Olympics in November and they were struggling to raise money, so I gave them £10,000 for their training kit and I got them the nutrition and extra stuff.

KS: Why did you want to do that?

LB: Because I got that opportunity, so why shouldn't they? Just because they are not in a mainstream limelight to be able to get the sponsors they can't afford to do it.

KS: What is something people get wrong about you?

LB: That I am overly driven or too arrogant or too focused.

KS: Some people think you are arrogant?

LB: I think they did maybe when I was younger, but it's like me being so focused. I have spoken about being autistic and feeling like you get to the solution quicker or you problem-solve quicker. I have always been good at that and not very good at slowing down for other people to get on the same page as me. Sometimes that comes across the wrong way, maybe like me being a bit bullish, but it is just me wanting to help. I can give you the solution, and I understand now that's not what people always want, but maybe that has had me misunderstood a lot.

KS: You spoke so openly about your autism diagnosis and the response was incredible. Did that surprise you?

LB: I spoke about it months ago and so much has happened since then. Even now people want me to speak about it. It surprised me because to me - it's just who I am. I suppose it does make me different or special in a different way, but I have never seen myself like that, it's just who I am and how I think. It is nice to share it with people because other people go through that and the response was crazy. People in the street were coming up to speak to me about them or their kids. There was a young boy who came up to me at a Chelsea game and he was like, 'I have been diagnosed as autistic as well and that's so cool that you have as well and you play for Chelsea'. I just thought that was so nice that he has something like, 'I am not different, I am not a bad person and I am not naughty' which I think has been a stereotype for years. He can be like 'It is not a bad thing and she can play football the best she can because of it'. That's what I have said - it is because of my autism that I feel like I became a better footballer.