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England defender Lucy Bronze has won the 2018/19 UEFA Women’s Player of the Year award.
The 27-year-old, who has been with French club Lyon since 2017, was England’s star performer at the Women’s World Cup earlier this year when she won the Silver Ball as the tournament’s second-best player.
The former Sunderland, Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City full-back also scored one of the goals of the tournament in England’s 3-0 quarter-final win against Norway.
Words surpass me 😅Truly grateful to be named uefa player of the year.Having played with and against so many great players this year, it really is a great honour and a huge surprise 😁 pic.twitter.com/VT2nHCwfOW — Lucy Bronze (@LucyBronze) August 29, 2019
Bronze finished ahead of Lyon team-mates Ada Hegerberg and Amandine Henry to win the accolade, and paid tribute to her colleagues at both club and international level.
She told UEFA.com: “I’m ecstatic and super humbled to have won the award up against two fantastic players who I know really well at Lyon: two great girls, great players.
“I want to say huge thanks to the Lionesses, the England team. We had a great summer and I don’t think I would have won this award if it wasn’t for them.
Lucy B̶r̶o̶n̶z̶e̶ 🙅♀️ Lucy GOLD 💁♀️ Congrats, @LucyBronze 👏#UEFAawards https://t.co/V1ytd2PeVV — UEFA (@UEFA) August 29, 2019
“The same goes for the Lyon team. We had an amazing season, we won the treble. I think any one of those girls could have been up here receiving this award.”
The jury was composed of the coaches of the 12 highest-ranked teams in the latest UEFA women’s national team rankings and 20 journalists.
Bronze added: “I want to thank both teams for pushing me to be a better player and for making me the player that I am today.”
