Lucy Bronze has already set her sights on winning next year’s World Cup, just hours after England went all the way at Euro 2022.
England ended their wait for a major trophy in women’s football by beating Germany in the final of the European Championship on Sunday night.
The Lionesses defeated Germany 2-1 in the final after Chloe Kelly struck in the 110th minute of the game.
England duly spent Sunday night and Monday morning partying, but Bronze already has her mind on next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
“Anybody that knows me knows I’m like that with anything,” said the 30-year-old.
“The Euros is fantastic especially in your home country, but there’s a little star missing from our crest at the minute on the England shirt. That’s definitely a mission of ours to get that star there.
“I think we’ve had a winning mindset for a couple of years now, we’ve been pushing that and just needed to match it on the field and we’ve finally done that.
“So it’s nice to be able to back up what we’ve been saying, that we’re good enough to win things, good enough to win tournaments and make finals.
“We’ve finally done that and we want to continue to do that. For a lot of the girls, that was their first tournament for England, and I think they think this is normal. That’s a great thing if they think that’s normal, then we have to keep getting to finals, that sets the standard.
"We know there are plenty of teams outside of Europe who want to compete for that World Cup as well as the teams in Europe who were in this tournament.
“I guess it’s up for grabs and we’re in a good place at the minute.
“Winning trophies like the Champions League, FA Cups and things like that has always been amazing, but a goal of mine has always been to win something with England.
“And I would’ve traded all those trophies previously for a night like tonight. I’m so proud of the fact we finally got our hands on a trophy - but now we want to get our hands on a World Cup next year.”
England have been mentioned as outside contenders to host the 2027 World Cup and Bronze has not ruled out playing in that.
“What’s that, in five years’ time? I’ll be 35 so yeah I could still play, I could do that,” she said.
“Jill [Scott] is here, if she’s doing it I can. I think that would be the only, literally the only thing that could top this tournament would be a home World Cup and the chance to do all this again but on an even bigger stage.
“That would be incredible. So fingers crossed. Any World Cup final would do for us I think.”
After England’s historic semi-final there has been talk of Dutch woman Wiegman being given an honorary damehood
Bronze, however, doubts that her head coach would accept such an honour given that she is so focused on the team.
“That sounds like it could be happening, but I think she would probably turn it down because she is just not that person,” said Bronze.
“She wants to make it all about the team. I think she we would be so embarrassed if we try and push for it.
“But I think that kind of shows the mentality that we have as a team. We want it to be about the team and it starts with Sarina. I think it is going to be hard for her to fight off the attention now.”
