Alanna Kennedy

Alanna Stephanie Kennedy (born 21 January 1995) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Women's Super League club Manchester City and the Australia national team.

Kennedy is recognised as being a versatile, technical player and is a right-footed free kick specialist.

Known on the international level as a centre back, Kennedy also plays in the midfielder position.

Kennedy was raised in the Sydney suburb of Rosemeadow and attended selective sports school Westfields Sports High School.

As a youth, she was the only girl on an all-boys team and later played for the Campbelltown Cobras.

She trained with the Girls Skills Acquisition Program (GSAP) at Macarthur Rams.

Kennedy acknowledged the Rams training ground as her "second home" growing up.

Kennedy started her W-league career playing for Sydney FC in the 2010–11 season, where she featured in 3 games.

The following year, Kennedy switched clubs and joined the Newcastle Jets in the 2011–12 W-League before returning to Sydney FC in the 2012–13 season.

Kennedy debuted for the Matildas against New Zealand in 2012.

For the 2013–14 season, she joined city rivals Western Sydney Wanderers.

and in the 2014 season she joined Perth Glory.

In 2014, at age 19, she was named to the Matildas squad for the 2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup.

She appeared in three games, as Australia finished runner-up to Japan.

In 2015, she returned to Sydney FC and would remain there the following 2 seasons.

In May 2015, Kennedy was named to Australia's 23-player roster for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup and was the second youngest player on their roster.

Kennedy appeared in all five matches for Australia.

In 2016, Kennedy signed with the Western New York Flash in the National Women's Soccer League.

She appeared in 17 games for the Flash in 2016.

Kennedy played every minute of Western New York's two playoff games, as the Flash won the 2016 NWSL Championship.

On 19 January 2017, Kennedy was traded to the Orlando Pride in exchange for midfielder Sam Witteman.

She appeared in every game for the Pride in 2017.

In the final game of the regular season on 30 September, Kennedy scored the game-winning goal on a free kick in stoppage time.

This win allowed Orlando to finish the regular season in 3rd place and qualify for the playoffs for the first time in club history.

In the semi-final, Kennedy scored again but Orlando lost 4–1 to the Portland Thorns.

Kennedy joined Melbourne City on loan for the 2017–18 W-League season.

During the 2017–2018 season, Kennedy was named to the Westfield W-League's "Team of the Decade", which was composed of the best XI players to ever play in the W-League, as voted for by the fans.

In the 2018 NWSL season, Kennedy appeared in 20 games and scored 2 goals; however, Orlando could not repeat their success of 2017 and finished outside the playoffs.

After spending one season at Melbourne City, Kennedy signed with Sydney FC for the 2018–19 W-League season, returning to the club she had played at for four previous seasons.

On 16 February 2019 Kennedy won her third W-league Championship title with a 4–2 win over Perth Glory in the grand final.

She re-signed with Sydney FC for the 2019–20 season.

In March 2020, the impending NWSL season was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

An eventual restart was made through a smaller schedule 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup tournament.

However, on 22 June, Orlando withdrew from the tournament following positive COVID-19 tests among both players and staff.

The team returned to the grand final in 2020 but lost to Melbourne City 1–0.

In August 2020, having been unable to feature for Orlando Pride in 2020 due to COVID-19 related issues, Kennedy moved to English FA WSL club Tottenham Hotspur on a six-month loan ahead of the 2020–21 season, with an option to make the move permanent.

On 12 November 2020, while on loan at Tottenham, Kennedy's NWSL playing rights were acquired by Racing Louisville FC in the 2020 NWSL Expansion Draft.

Upon the expiration of her loan and NWSL contract in December 2020, Kennedy instead opted to remain in England and sign permanently with Tottenham until the end of the season.

Kennedy was released by Tottenham on 25 May 2021.

At the end of August 2021, Kennedy signed a two-year deal with Manchester City, joining national team-mate Hayley Raso.