No female player in British footballing history can boast an honours list quite like Lucy Bronze’s – and that list only grew longer in 2023.
In her first season with Barcelona, Bronze bagged the seventh domestic league title of her career with a fourth different club, following triumphs at Liverpool, Manchester City and Lyon. Weeks later came a fourth Champions League crown, adding to the haul she’d secured while playing in France.
Then, in August, she helped England to reach their first ever World Cup final, having been a key figure throughout what has undoubtedly been the Lionesses’ greatest era, as part of the team that also celebrated European Championship glory in 2022. And she won FIFA’s Women’s Player of the Year award in 2020. Not bad for a full-back – especially one who had to wait until she was nearly 22 for Hope Powell to give her an international debut, just as she was contemplating a switch to the Portuguese national team.