Kildare's codebreaker Alannah Prizeman is 'chasing her dreams'

She has already fulfilled a dream in a different sport and now Alannah Prizeman is living out another one as part of the Kildare senior ladies football panel.

Having first played soccer at the tender age of eight in her hometown of Naas, Prizeman had aspirations of representing the Republic of Ireland at international level.

This is something she managed to do as recently as April 11 2023, when she featured off the bench for the Ireland Under-19s in a European Championship qualification game against Croatia at the Gjemselund Stadion in Norway.

Yet just under four months later she featured for Kildare in a ZuCar All-Ireland U18 'A' Football Championship final defeat to Galway at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park and this further fuelled a long-held ambition to line out for the Lilywhites at senior level. This dream was realised at Manguard Park on 6 January of this year, when she was handed a competitive debut in her side’s Lidl National Football League Division 1 opener at home to Waterford.

"It has always been a dream of mine to play for Kildare and wear the white jersey. Now that I’m getting the chance to do that at the moment, it’s a dream come true in that sense," Prizeman explained.

"I had dreams in Gaelic football and with soccer as well to play for Ireland. I did play underage for Ireland, so that dream came true and then I always wanted to play senior for Kildare. Now that I’m getting to do that, it’s great."

Another big personal milestone that Prizeman achieved during 2023 was a first-team debut for Shamrock Rovers against Treaty United in the Women’s Premier Division – three years after she joined the Dublin club as an U17 player. She went on to make a total of 18 senior appearances for the Hoops, before officially