The English Lucy Bronze will land in Barcelona with a title under her arm, emulating Lieke Martens in the last European Championship, who won the trophy with the Netherlands the summer he signed for the Barça club, in 2017. “I am following in the footsteps of Lieke, I hope she has a career in Barcelona as successful as hers”, the new player of the Catalan team acknowledged to La Vanguardia after being crowned European champion. “Lieke has played several Champions League finals and has won one with Barça, if I am able to match that, I will be more than happy”, she added.
Unable to contain a huge smile of satisfaction and with the medal around his neck, Bronze tried to describe in words how he feels after lifting England's first European Championship, the first major trophy won by the country in more than 50 years, since the Men's World Cup won in 1966, also at Wembley. “I feel like I am living a dream. Playing a European final, at Wembley, with England, against Germany... and winning it, is as if someone had written history before and we only had to make it come true. I think the only way to make it more epic would have been to go to penalties, but luckily we were able to avoid that and win within 120 minutes,” she explained.
After the final whistle Wembley became a real party. The dream ending to a story that will become a legend. The young captain Leah Williamson (25) took over from an entire British football institution such as Bobby Moore, the captain of the team that 56 years ago lifted the country's last major title, and who today welcomes all visitors from Wembley in the form of a statue.
The entire nation has dedicated itself to its Lyonesses, even the Queen of England Isabell II has referred to a triumph that goes beyond the sports field: “I hope you are as proud of the impact you have had on your sport, as you are today of the result”, she congratulated the players. And it is that the general feeling today in England is not so much happiness for having won the first European Championship, but satisfaction for having managed to inspire an entire country. “It is not the end of a road, but the beginning of something very big”, warned the English captain before the game.
And it is that the visibility that this tournament has had has reached levels never seen before, with millionaire audiences throughout the continent -more than 17 million people watched the triumph of the hosts on the BBC-, not to mention the massive attendance at the stadiums. More than 600,000 people have come to watch any of the 31 matches of the tournament, twice as many as in the last edition, with the high point this Sunday at Wembley, where an absolute attendance record was broken for a European Championship final, both for men, as feminine. If the last final played by the Lionesses, back in 2009 in Helsinki, was seen by 40,000 people from the stadium, on Sunday there were 87,192 fans who vibrated with a historic final.
Yesterday, all the covers of the British press were for its 23 footballers and a feat that represents a before and after for British football. Just as it happened in Barcelona with the full Camp Nou or with the Champions League in Göteborg, the 2022 European Championship will inspire future generations who today already have references in which to see themselves reflected. “It's been a long road for me and for the other older players on the team. Jill (Scott) and I have lived through many hard times, but at last we have the trophy”, confessed an emotional Lucy Bronze who finally won a title that has eluded her for years, accumulating defeats in the semifinals.
“Winning trophies is always incredible, but doing it with England is something special,” added Bronze, who explained that he was looking forward to hugging his own after a tournament in which they have lived through many weeks of isolation due to anticovid protocols: “Today he is going to to be the best night for us, we are going to see our family and friends that we have not seen in a month because of the covid bubble. They have been there cheering us on from the first day and today we will finally be able to hug them”, he said, unable to contain the joy of someone who has just become European champion, at 30 years old and at home.
