Lucy Bronze’s jog from Barcelona to Chelsea this summer season is a return to acquainted territory – but presents a brand unusual and intriguing dispute.
The 32-year-mild defender has won all of it in membership soccer. In England, she has won every home title there could be to win, and out of the country with Lyon and Barcelona she has won league titles, cups and even the coveted UEFA Girls folk’s Champions League five times.
But for Bronze, there could be unfinished enterprise in her home nation and there could be something distinctive about the likelihood of being topped Champions of Europe with an English membership. “I became able to enact something else,” she stated, talking on the Barclays WSL’s 2024/25 season originate Media Day.
“I had in my mind that I desired to reach again again to England one beyond regular time. I feel a hit the Champions League with an English group has continuously been my dream.
“I won the Champions League for the first time at Lyon, but nothing would ever be as perfect as doing it with an English group. That’s something that I felt playing for England as effectively, a hit a match with England technique extra to me than the relaxation.
“I’m not on the originate of my career so I needed to construct trim moves to rob a possess a study to cease these wishes that I truly possess. So coming to Chelsea, I desire to win the Champions League with an English group and Chelsea are the correct group to enact that with.”
For the Blues, this summer season marked a thrilling unusual chapter for the membership. After greater than a decade at Chelsea, prolonged-serving manager Emma Hayes expose an emotional farewell in train to pursue a brand unusual different as head coach of the US Girls folk’s National Staff.
Her exit paved the vogue for ragged Lyon boss Sonia Bompastor to rob the reigns in the dugout. The 44-year-mild has won the Champions League and home titles for Lyon as both a player and a manager, and she will seemingly be no stranger to Bronze.
“Getting Sonia [Bompastor] and Camille [Abily] in because the coaches – I spoke to them for 30 seconds and I became a Chelsea player,” the England global continued. “Piece of [deciding to] reach to Chelsea became working with these two again, shining that they are so stressful and possess unquestionably high standards.
“They did it both as gamers after which as coaches, so I do know what they’ll convey to a group. That could maybe per chance very effectively be the element that takes Chelsea to 1 other level. If we can accumulate the correct out of all these items that we’ve bought and the skill that we’ve bought, then I feel we could maybe per chance be unstoppable in opposition to most teams.”
Chelsea had been one of the important important dominant forces in English soccer for numerous years, but success on the European stage has remained frustratingly out of reach. The closest they came to breaking their Champions League hoodoo became in 2021, as soon as they reached the final in Gothenburg, handiest to endure a heavy 4-0 defeat in opposition to Barcelona.
Within the last two seasons, Chelsea’s European ambitions had been reduce instant on the semi-last stage – both times on the arms of Barcelona. For Bronze, who played a key characteristic in Barcelona’s recent triumphs, these terminate to misses handiest add to Chelsea’s doable.
“Chelsea possess bought that a hit mentality,” she added. “They’ve bought which possess of beating Barcelona and Lyon, and being in a Champions League last. But most continuously it’s not perfect skill that you wish.
“These last bits: the knowhow of a hit the final, being ready and centered, having determined minds going into that last – Sonia, myself and Camille can add that to Chelsea and push this group over the line for the reason that skill’s there.
“You unquestionably noticed it last year, and even that became with a few injuries at Chelsea. This year could maybe very effectively be even greater and the Champions League is the principle one which we’re missing.”
As the females’s sport continues to jog from energy to energy, it also presents unusual challenges for clubs and gamers to take care of. The WSL has prolonged been identified for gamers mixing freely with supporters after games, but rising crowds build it grand to meet the demands of followers hoping for an autograph and a selfie.
Sooner than the unusual season, Chelsea made the harsh resolution to restrict fan interaction pre and put up match at Kingsmeadow, citing the protection concerns out of doorways the bottom, to boot to followers gathering on the entrance of stands within the stadium and blocking exits. While it’s a first-rate step to rob, Bronze believes the resolution is a an extraordinarily grand one.
“It’s about safety not just for the players, but also for the fans,” she explained. “The followers are passe to having that response with gamers, which we love as effectively, but on the terminate of the day it’s essential to to have the opportunity to’t consult with every fan.
“We calm possess these interactions with followers. Even supposing I could maybe simply not be signing [autographs] I calm accumulate to sight them and that’s calm what I expertise, hearing them chant on the pitch, we unquestionably feel and hear that from the followers.”
To boot to managing fan engagement, there are deal of other hurdles the females’s sport must overcome. This summer season, the WSL and Championship had been transferred from the possession of the Soccer Association to a brand unusual and impartial firm snappy named Girls folk’s Official Leagues Runt (WPLL), and spearheaded by CEO Nikki Doucet. It’s a first-rate shift, and one which Bronze sees as a an extraordinarily grand step forward.
“I’ve spoken to Nikki [Doucet] moderately of bit, and I’ve met many of the of us from WPLL” she concluded. “I feel it’s intriguing that they’re taking on, that there’s a enterprise mannequin, and that somebody sees the league as something that could maybe grow. The FA did an improbable job getting us to the place we are, but it’s positively time to flourish on its dangle.
“We are able to’t ask issues to trade in a single day. That’s not what this sport is set. It’s about longevity, guaranteeing we rob the upright steps. We’re going to construct our dangle path. We don’t observe what the boys enact or what other sports actions enact – we rob the correct issues, but we desire to construct it our dangle.”
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