Bronze worked part-time in pizza shop but became Ballon d'Or contender compared to Lahm

Despite already having 83 caps for her country, the full-back has been given a fresh dose of confidence by completing a huge move from Manchester City to Barcelona, adding to her case for being the best player in women's football.

Born in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, Bronze started playing for Alnwick Town AFC before moving to join Sunderland at the age of 12.

After progressing through the age groups with the Black Cats, she was offered the chance to study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and play for the North Carolina Tar Heels women's soccer team, the most successful Division 1 team in the country after winning a scholarship.

There she became the first British player to win an NCAA Cup in December 2009, as well as earning all-American honours.

Upon returning to the UK, Bronze joined Everton where she combined football, her studies and working part-time in a pizza shop, telling The Telegraph: "That's the sort of thing people were doing. Play football, work in a takeaway.

"You just made it work, you did what you needed to get enough money to live and play football. We did it for the love of the game. There was no talk about contracts, social media, what you look like in a video."

She then secured a move to Liverpool, before spending three years with Manchester City between 2014 and 2017 and then heading to Lyon where she won three Champions League titles.

She also won a series of individual accolades, including the UEFA Women's Player Of The Year award in 2019 and came second in the Women's Ballon d'Or vote that same year.

It was also during in 2019 that Bronze was compared to Bayern Munich legend Philipp Lahm.

England coach at the time, Phil Neville, said: "There will be times she plays right-back, but we have a two-year period now where playing Lucy in midfield might be one of the risks we take.

"Pep Guardiola did it with Philipp Lahm. He was voted one of the best right-backs, but he put him into midfield.

"People will ask why we are doing it [with Bronze] - she is the best right-back in the world - but if you are brave enough to take the risk and have buy-in from the player it can be successful."

Bronze returned to Man City for two years in 2020 where she took her trophy haul with the Citizens to five, while she was also named in the FIFA FIFPro Women's World11 for three consecutive years.

But Bronze admitted that her second spell with City wasn't quite what she'd hoped it would be, leading to her move to Barcelona.

She told talkSPORT: My contract finished and I never really felt right when I came back in the two years I spent there.

"I worked hard, obviously I had a problem with my knee and that kept me out of the game for a little bit. But yeah, I just wasn't happy there. So I'm off to find another new challenge ahead.

"[I won't be playing in the WSL] anytime soon, but yeah, maybe it's in the future again. But right now, I don't know.

"There's something about being in England that I thought was going to be amazing and it was going to be like home, but England's never really felt like home to me in terms of domestic football."

While the move to Barcelona is hugely exciting for Bronze, the 30-year-old was adamant that it wouldn't pose a distraction for this summer's European Championships, saying: "The one thing I said to Barca and my agent was 'I want it done before the tournament'.

"I want to focus on playing well for England, I don't want questions about what club you're going to next and all the talk and the gossip around that.

"We've come on heaps and bounds from the first tournament I went to, we got knocked out in the group stage.

"To consistently hit semi-finals, we're obviously doing something right. That little edge we have more than ever is that our players have played for big clubs and played in big matches like Champions League finals."

While England will have genuine aspirations of winning the competition, Sarina Wiegman's side can take inspiration from the achievements of Gareth Southgate's side after they reached the Euro 2020 final at Wembley, a match that they went on to lose against Italy.

Despite that disappointment, Bronze believes that her conversations with the mens' team have only strengthened their team's determination to do well.

She told talkSPORT: "I was speaking to [Gareth Southgate] the other week and he's just asking if we're all excited," Bronze said.

"Obviously the lads were in last week when we were here and they were sharing experiences of the tournament last year that they played in and how incredible it was to have the home and support and how much it added to the team.

"Which was brilliant because you hear in the past so many times where that pressure on the England team is kind of way too much. But the lads said it was unbelievable last year.

"Declan Rice, I was sat looking at him and he had the biggest smile on his face and said 'Honestly guys you're going to absolutely love it, It was amazing'.

"It was obviously his first tournament last year for England, and he was just like, 'The memories that I've made, the moments on the pitch, off the pitch was unbelievable, it was more than I could have ever expected'.

"And yeah, just seeing the kind of smiles on their faces when they're talking about it just makes you so excited that we've kind of got that to come ahead and to have them messages of support from the boys and Gareth himself was brilliant."