Lucy Bronze has won the UEFA Women’s player of the year award and is the first English player to do so.

NICE, FRANCE - JULY 05: Lucy Bronze lies on the pitch during a England training session during the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019 at Parc des Sports Charles Ehrmann on July 05, 2019 in Nice, France. (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
NICE, FRANCE – JULY 05: Lucy Bronze lies on the pitch during a England training session during the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 at Parc des Sports Charles Ehrmann on July 05, 2019 in Nice, France. (Photo by Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

She is also the first defender to win the award, as well.

Here is her full list of honours for the 2018/19 season and you can see why she has won the award

Lyon

  • UEFA Women’s Champions League winner
  • French League winner
  • French Cup winner
  • UEFA Women’s Champions League Squad of the Season

England

  • FIFA Women’s World Cup semi-final
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup Silver Ball
  • SheBelieves Cup winner

This is also reflected in the voting as she won it by a mile, well ahead of her two Lyon team-mates.

1 Lucy Bronze (Lyon & England) – 88 points
2 Ada Hegerberg (Lyon) – 56 points
3 Amandine Henry (Lyon & France) – 44 points
4 Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal & Netherlands) – 31 points
5 Ellen White (Birmingham City, now Manchester City & England) – 22 points
6 Pernille Harder (Wolfsburg & Denmark) – 21 points
7 Dzsenifer Marozsán (Lyon & Germany) – 12 points
8 Caroline Graham Hansen (Wolfsburg, now Barcelona & Norway) – 10 points
9= Lieke Martens (Barcelona & Netherlands) – 9 points
9= Wendie Renard (Lyon & France) – 9 points

And regarding her current positional change by Phil Neville, the England manager, I think it serves a double purpose: one to solve a problem in midfield that currently exists in term of back-up in the number eight position. Two, to challenge Lucy to get even better.

Number one is obvious. Jill Scott, who had a superb world-cup, is closer to the end of her England career than the beginning. Jordan Nobbs is only back on the pitch following her ACL and Lucy has the closest profile to Jordan in terms of forwars run and explosivity.

So, it make sense to try her there to see if she can adapt to the position. She also used to be a centre-back, as well. Playing in central area is not a problem.

Number two is also obviously a ploy to challenge Lucy to reach an even higher level than where she is now. If you are at the top of your game week-in week-out playing in a world class team, it is not that easy to carry on improving. Adding a few strings to her bow is a good way to make her better. It will certainly enhance her knowledge of the game and her football IQ.

I think Elite athletes need to be challenged to get even better and that’s what Neville is doing with that experiment. Is it working? That is a good question, but I certainly think it will improve Lucy’s game on a long-term basis.

Congratulations to Lucy on that well deserved award and she might be in the running for the FIFA BEST player of the year award too that will be unveiled next month in Milan.