‘We dream of playing in the shirt. Today, God chose you. Play like we dream.’

It’s the wish of every football fan – to don their Club colours, walk out onto the hallowed turf and play the beautiful game for their beloved team, in front of their fellow fervent supporters.

It’s a fantasy realised by few but for those who do achieve their ambition of representing their childhood Club, the experience is something that cannot be replicated in any other aspect of life.

One woman currently living that dream is Keira Walsh.

Rochdale born and bred, the 23-year-old (celebrating her birthday today) is Mancunian through and through, with Blue blood running through her veins: a lifelong City fan.

The midfielder first stepped out as a first-team star for the Club she adores in 2014 aged just 17 and following in the footsteps of her heroes – inspired, she explains, from years of watching her City idols with her fanatical and incredibly perceptive father.

Although they may not have realised to what extent at the time, both of her parents in fact, would play crucial roles in shaping Walsh’s career journey with the midfielder now regarded as one of the most technically gifted and consistent midfielders in the English game.

Having experienced the highs and lows of City fandom – the agony and the ecstasy, the ‘character-building’ and the camaraderie – Walsh knows exactly what it means to support City but so deep does her affiliation run, the midfield maestro admits her passion has occasionally affected her performance with emotions running high and love overcoming logic – evident with contrasting fortunes in her first two Manchester Derbies.

“Growing up, I was just obsessed with Man City,” she recalls. “I don’t really know where the City connection came from. My grandad supports Liverpool and on my mum’s side, my uncle supports Burnley. I guess City were just the local team for my dad – he just picked them and started supporting them and it’s just gone on from there. Because my dad is a massive Blue, my mum had to go with City and she would say she’s a City fan.

“I even had two goldfish called Shaun Goater and Nicolas Anelka and when I look back on all of the pictures of me in my City kits, I remember that whenever the new kit came out, I made my mum wait outside the Store at 8am and run inside when it opened. I had the home and away kit every season and I even had the goalkeeper kit with Kasper Schmeichel on the back of one because my dad told me he’d be a top player.