Lucy Bronze joins Barcelona after Manchester City exit

After telling

Manchester City

last month that she was leaving,

, an English defender, has signed with

.

Bronze was named the best women's player by FIFA in 2020. She was rumored to be moving to the United States, but instead, she made a surprising move to Barca, which finished second in the Champions League.

The 30-year-old won five trophies in two stints with City. From 2017 to 2020, he was a European champion with Lyon for three straight years. And the fullback is sure he will do well with the Blaugranes, who have won three straight Spanish league titles and lost to

Lyon

in the Champions League final last month after beating Chelsea to win the European title in 2021.

On Saturday, the official

Barcelona Femeni Twitter account

posted a picture of Bronze with the words "Welcome to your new home." The club's website then said that she had signed a two-year contract.

Bronze told the club's media outlets, "I'm very happy to play for one of the best teams in the world like FC Barcelona. I'm eager to start working with the group. "Once you've talked to Barca a few times, you can't say no."

In April, Barcelona beat their own world record crowd for a women's game when they beat Wolfsburg 5-1 at Camp Nou in front of 91,648 people. Bronze will be important to England's bid to win the European Championship before she joins her new team. The Lionesses will start their campaign on July 6 at Old Trafford against Austria. They hope to get to their first major final since Euro 2009, which would be the World Cup.

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