England star Lucy Bronze says making the international squad for the Euros in 2022, being hosted in England, would be the ‘highlight of my career’.

Bronze has just signed for Manchester City from French giants Lyon and said one of the motivations for doing so was that she could be closer to the England squad.

"England has always been and always will be my biggest goal. To win something for England is always top of my priority list which is a big reason for wanting to move back to England to be closer to the team and help influence the team more. 

“What greater opportunity than the next three or four years with all the competitions, a home Euro’s especially that will be the highlight of my career if I am to make it into that squad.”

The 28 year-old has won everything possible in the WSL and French league domestically, not to mention having three Champions League titles under her belt.

"I have had that individual success in terms of winning the Champions League as an individual in a team abroad but I want to bring that success back to England, back to City. 

"City is a team used to winning silverware anyway but I want the team to win more silverware, be more consistent, get back to winning the league, push to make Champions League final and just take the team to the next level. 

“I could have stayed at Lyon and had the same goals every single year but I think the people that know me know I like to challenge myself, I like to give myself different challenges, different goals, and that is probably the biggest reason for me coming back and wanting that change.”

Change is exactly what is in store for Bronze when she returns to action in the WSL with over 30 internationals signing for the league over the summer.

"I think it’s interesting obviously with Tobin [Heath] and Christen Press at United now, which is going to be a rival game anyway. To match up with one of them - that’d be cool, but there’s so many good players now - Pernille Harder, someone I played against in the Champions League final as well, someone I enjoyed playing against. 

"My favourite games I was playing against the best players, so it’s kind of great now that there’s so many attacking players within the league that I get to match up against. Something that I had in training every day at Lyon was playing against the best wingers, and now I’m going to have it in pretty much every game playing up against these top, top wingers, top attackers, top strikers. 

“There’s a list of them: Vivianne Miedema I know is probably not directly up against me, but I’ve probably not played that much against her, so it will be nice to play up and close against her, especially more recently now when she’s had such a good season last year, but there’s a number of them I think. Each week, I’m going to be rubbing my hands together excited at these different match-ups I get to try myself against."

And the defender added she will take on a different role in City’s changing room than she did for Lyon.

"I think at Lyon they already had their set kind of leaders and people…the team's been fixed for so long that you kind of come in and you’ve just got to fill the gaps. I was probably the person who kind of glued together the foreigners and the French people. Obviously I won’t really have to do that at City although there is one French girl. 

“At City I’m probably looked at as one of the older players, the most experienced player like a winner, someone who wins trophies and probably got that different edge that I've got to bring to City. 

“I couldn't really walk into Lyon and say I'm a winner when they’re standing there with six or seven Champions League medals.”

The only trophy City are yet to get their hands on is the Champions League and Bronze has said it’s definitely in the club’s sights this season.

"I think it's on everybody's to do list every year. I mean, I know that from coming from a club who consistently win the Champions League, but it's definitely on the list. But I mean there's so many trophies up for grabs this year in England anyway, it's just the cliche of taking each game as it comes. 

"I think the most important thing is to get to the quarter final stages, then you're looking after Christmas, you've kind of got March onwards to push the team on. 

“At the moment there's five new signings that are getting bedded into the team. And unfortunately, there's four of us who've kind of arrived late as well. So, we've got to give the team time to gel first and then we can kind of set our sights on really what we want to do this year.”

City’s next match is in the WSL at home against Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.