Bronze: I would not allow my mum to meet Ronaldo

Lucy Bronze denied her mother a meeting with Cristiano Ronaldo after becoming the first English player to be crowned Uefa Women’s Player of the Year.

The 27-year-old was not at the awards ceremony in Monaco to pick up the accolade after featuring as a midfielder in England’s 3-3 draw against Belgium in Leuven on Thursday evening.

The versatile right-back was one of two defenders to win top honours after Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk pipped Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Juventus’ Ronaldo for the men’s prize.

“I texted Phil [Neville] and said, ‘Do you think I can go to the awards ceremony?’ He said, ‘Luce, we’ve got a game,’ and I was like, ‘Yep, say no more.’ I’m not leaving,” revealed Bronze, whose mother, Diane, suggested attending the ceremony on her behalf.

“My mum actually texted me – because she’s the only person I told I’d won – and she asked, ‘Do you need me to go and collect the award?’ And I said, ‘No, I’ve got it,’ and she was like, ‘Are you sure? Because I really want to go and meet Ronaldo’. My mum speaks Portuguese too. She was like, ‘I can go and speak with him’ and I was like, ‘No, definitely no, then!’”

Bronze was one of England’s outstanding players at the World Cup, in which Neville reiterated his claim that she is “the best player in the world” after the defender landed a thunderbolt strike from the edge of the area in her side’s 3-0 victory over Norway. She won the Silver Ball as the competition’s second-best player, behind only United States captain, Megan Rapinoe.

Since her move in 2017 from Manchester City to Lyon, Bronze has won five trophies, including back-to-back Champions Leagues. She was also the first English player to have made the final shortlist of three in the award’s seven-year history.

“I’m not striving to win personal awards, I’m not striving to be the best player in Europe, I just want to win things for England and Lyon and that’s my goal,” said Bronze.

She added: “For me, it’s more about being the first English player to win the European award – that’s more special than it actually being me – because it shows English football is growing and getting better and people are thinking of us.”