Diane Caldwell revelling in 'unimaginable' Manchester United dream

There's never any guarantee but good things can come to those who wait.

For Diane Caldwell, growing up in Balbriggan as an ardent Manchester United fan during the 1990s and early noughties pomp of Roy Keane and Denis Irwin, the possibility of playing for the club one day couldn't be anything more than a daydream.

United didn't have a women's team until four years ago. In the meantime, Caldwell's career took an adventurous route from the US to Iceland, Norway, six years in Germany and then back to the US last year with North Carolina Courage, all the while winning a multitude of Republic of Ireland caps.

But snap back to reality and the Man United daydream is no more for the 33-year-old who can now live that dream for real having signed for the club at the end of January.

It's a short-term deal but a long time coming, Caldwell told this week's RTÉ Soccer Podcast.

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"I'd been in contact with United since November and they needed defensive reinforcements. Then [the deal] was done a little bit late in the end but done before deadline day and that was the most important thing," she said.

"It is kind of unimaginable and hard to put into words because as a child, it was just always my dream and you get to certain points in your career where you think maybe it won't happen.

"The women's team wasn't even in existence until the last couple of years and it was something that I thought, okay, it might never happen. But even if they had a team at an amateur-level, I still think I would have tried to come over here at some point just to represent that badge and play.

"So the fact that they then did create a professional team, it was obviously an