Revealed: How close Lionesses star Lucy Bronze came to playing for Portugal - with England narrowly beating deadline set by current Barcelona defender

The 32-year-old is a Northumberland native, but her father is Portuguese and she boasts dual nationality as a result. With that in mind, her career could have headed down an entirely different path – one that would have prevented her from becoming a European Championship winner in 2022.

Bronze has told FourFourTwo when asked how close she came to representing Portugal: “When I was 16, they asked my parents if I’d like to play for Portugal. I didn’t get picked for England for quite a while, which is surprising to some people. I told my parents, ‘If I get to 22 and still haven’t been picked, I want to play international football’ – although I wanted to play for England, I would’ve been just as honoured to play for Portugal. Then I got picked for England four months before my 22nd birthday, because there were four injuries, and I stayed in the squad after that. I probably would’ve played for Portugal if that hadn’t happened.”

Expanding on her Portuguese roots and why one of her middle names is ‘Tough’, Bronze added: “It’s actually my mum’s maiden name. My dad is Portuguese and in Portugal you take both family names, so my full name is Lucia Roberta Tough Bronze. My mum was Diane Tough. It’s a family trait – all the women in my family are very strong-minded, shall we say? My younger sister and I have inherited it: Tough by name, tough by nature! I’ve had to live up to the name!”

Bronze has certainly done that, with her medal collection including three WSL titles from spells at Liverpool and Manchester City, domestic honours in France and Spain and four Champions League triumphs across her stints at Lyon and Barcelona. She also has 118 caps for England and landed the FIFA Best Women’s Player award in 2020.