Lucy Bronze becomes first Englishwoman to win Uefa's player of the year

Footballer Lucy Bronze made history by becoming the English player to win the UEFA Women's player of the year award. Credit: Lucy Bronze/ Twitter

Lucy Bronze has made history by becoming the first English footballer to win the UEFA Women's player of the year award.

The Lionesses defender won the award following her impressive displays for both the England national team and French side Lyon, who she has been with since 2017.

Since making the move, Bronze has won back-to-back Uefa Women's Champions League titles, as well as consecutive French league titles.

Lucy Bronze was unable to pick up the award as she was playing for England. Credit: AP

The 27-year-old was England's star performer at the Women's World Cup earlier this year, where she won the Silver Ball as the tournament's second-best player.

The former Sunderland, Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City full-back also netted for England during the World Cup, scoring one of the goals of the tournament against Norway.

Bronze beat off stiff competition from Lyon team-mates Ada Hegerberg Amandine Henry to win the award.

Bronze's performances at the World Cup helped England to reach the semi-final. Credit: AP

The defender was not at the awards ceremony in Monaco last night, which doubled-up as the draw for the Champions League group stages, as she was playing in a 3-3 draw for England against Belgium.

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.

"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.

It is the latest in a long line of awards for Bronze, who won the PFA Women's Players' Player of the Year in 2013-14 season while at Liverpool, and also in 2016-17 while at Manchester City.

Virgil Van Dijk won the Uefa Men's player of the year. Credit: AP

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."

Following England's draw with Belgium, Bronze told BBC Sport that her mother wanted to go and collect the award on her behalf so she could meet Cristiano Ronaldo, who was nominated for the men's award.

She said: "Just the England girls and my mum knew about it. She (Bronze's mother) asked if she could go and collect the award just so she could meet Ronaldo but I said I'd already got it."

The men's prize was won be Netherlands centre back Virgil Van Dijk. The Champions League winner become the first defender to win the award, beating Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo.