Lucy Bronze has set the gold standard for British female footballers – but she’s found another way to live up to her name.
The 32-year-old Barcelona defender is the most successful female player in British history, helping England win the Euros as well as bagging the Champions League on four separate occasions.
Born to an English mother and a Portuguese father, her full name is Lucia Roberta Tough Bronze, and she’s shown no shortage of toughness during her career on the pitch.
“Tough is actually my mum’s maiden name,” Bronze told FourFourTwo. “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 started her career at Sunderland, helping the club to the 2009 Women’s FA Cup final, when she was still 17. Arsenal ultimately secured a 2-1 victory at Derby’s Pride Park, but Bronze was chosen as the player of the match.
Her family actually grew up on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, just off the coast of Northumberland.
“The English side of my family are from there,” Bronze told FFT. “My grandma’s grandma was the caretaker of Lindisfarne Castle.
“I was close to being born there – the nurses at the hospital said ‘We’ll come in a helicopter when you give birth’. But my mum said ‘Absolutely no chance am I going to be in a helicopter, about to give birth!’
“So I wasn’t born on the island, but I spent my first years there, before moving to the mainland when my brother and I needed a school with a few more people in it!”
More Lucy Bronze stories
Revealed: How the defender nearly chose Portugal over England
‘It was overshadowed by one man’s stupidity’ – Bronze on the Women’s World Cup final
