Lioness' adorable nephew 'thinks aunty's house is a stadium'
Lioness Lucy Bronze has told how her little niece and nephew 'think Aunty Lucy's house is a stadium' after growing up watching her play at major tournaments. Among the England legend's most loyal fan base are Alzira, three, and Freddie, five, who have been following their aunt's glittering career with their dad Jorge Bronze, since they were born.
Lucy's brother and wife Charis took their little ones to cheer on the Lionesses at the Australian World Cup two years ago and will be touching down to do the same again in Switzerland. But having only ever known a life of major tournaments and Champions League finals, Lucy told how her niece and nephew haven't realised quite what a big deal their aunty's team is yet.
She told the Mirror: "Freddie thinks that Aunty Lucy's house is a stadium. He actually says that. I think they just think it's super normal to go on four week holidays to football matches and have your dad scream at 22 women running around the field. I think they just think that's really normal."
The mini Bronzes were mascots at the Lionesses' send off match against Jamaica and also joined players' families in St George Park before the team departed to Switzerland. After coming through the youth ranks together, many of the players' families are now a tight knit group of friends who have watched the girls grow up into Lionesses together.
Lucy added: "I think they're still not old enough, but they absolutely love coming and we have a lot of young family members in the different families now, and I think it's that's nice to share moments with them and they were both, obviously they were mascots in our last game, even though technically they weren't old enough, but it was fine. They loved that, but they still had no idea. They'll look back at pictures and will probably realise, but yeah they have no idea."
A few days after the Lionesses touched down on Swiss soil, the squad enjoyed a team outing to Lake Zurich where they were treated to a boat ride across the picturesque glacial lake. Some 41,000 English fans are set to follow the team to Switzerland and roar in the stands as they bid for another European Championship victory
A number of fans gathered at the Lionesses training ground on Friday to catch their first glimpse of the squad before watching their opening game tomorrow night (Sat). Al Li, 13, from Newcastle had flown to Zurich with her parents after securing some last minute tickets for the bout.
Mum Kerry Bruce told the Mirror they'd spent more than £600 just getting out to Switzerland for just four nights to see the Lionesses.
Kerry, 33, said: "I have a friend who lives in Zurich that we could stay with so I knew we could be at this match.
"We are so excited, I was crying before, it';s our dream to actually see them. You see all the fans getting to meet them and we are just not normally that lucky. We will be absolutely buzzing to see them win. We think it will be Spain vs England again in the final.
"We'd love to come back out to see them play in the final. If we had the funds we would be back out in a heartbeat."
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