For over three years now, she has largely been New Zealand’s women’s soccer’s "forgotten footballer", out of sight, seemingly out of mind and certainly out of selection consideration where the Football Ferns were concerned. Not since New Zealand qualified for the last Olympic Games by defeating Papua New Guinea 2-0 in a one-off play-off in Port Moresby in March 2008 has she graced the national shirt of her country on the world stage. But Hannah Bromley’s burning desire to proudly bear the silver fern on her breast once again has never diminished, and when a selection of New Zealand’s finest female footballers headed off on a three-match tour of Australia and China on May 10, it wasn’t too hard to pick out the happiest player among the 21-strong squad. The statuesque Taranaki native was beaming broadly as she headed through Customs, her dream of making the squad to represent New Zealand at the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals in Germany now very much hers to realise. So what’s she been up to since earning the last of her six caps for her country? "At the time, I was studying at Central Connecticut University, having switched from Tennessee Tech, which I left for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the set-up for my Communications major. "I also played in the Women’s Premier Soccer League competition for Soccer Plus Connecticut, and was a founding player in a club boasting five US internationals and coached by former US women’s coach Tony DiCicco, who was in charge when the USA last won the Women’s World Cup in 1999. "How I joined Soccer Plus was incredible. Tony had seen me in action for CCU, and rang me up one day. He asked me about playing and everything, and I was like "Ooh! Absolutely! Where do I sign?" That was pretty much how it was". Once her studies and a spell with the New England Mutiny team in the WPSL were completed, the lure of plying her trade in Europe proved irresistible for the twenty-four-year-old, and she picked up a professional contract in Norway, playing for IF Floya in the Toppserien league. "I played for them during 2010, and though I had a broken foot for the majority of the season, there was not a lot of support in the club for international players. So it was quite rough a lot of the time, and the fact that it snowed pretty much fifty weeks out of the year didn't help because it was always too cold to do anything!"

A change of environment was called for, and Hannah was offered the chance to become the latest Kiwi to play top-flight women’s football in Germany. She signed a contract to play in the Frauen Bundesliga with Herforder SV, and to say she’s loving it is an understatement! "I really enjoy being at Herforder SV. Though we've had bad results, the team are focused to get sorted over summer and come back to pre-season in July buzzing! My team is great fun, and it helps that they have a good sense of humour too, especially when I try to speak German to them!" Hannah joined Herforder at the start of this year, and relished a new role in central midfield as she played the last seven games of the 2010-11 season for her new club, scoring in a narrow loss at home to Bayer Leverkusen during a period in which Herforder scored their only win of the campaign. Playing in the same league as fellow Football Fern Rebecca Smith proved the catalyst which reignited her World Cup ambitions, and Hannah couldn’t get on the plane quickly enough when national coach John Herdman invited her home to stake her claim for a place in the New Zealand squad as he leaves no stone unturned prior to finalising plans for Germany 2011. "I’m pretty stoked!" exclaimed a young lady who began her career as the only girl in the boys’ team at Merrilands Youth Club in 1997. "I never expected to be selected for this tour. "It feels great to be back on the New Zealand scene, that’s for sure. The team has been working so hard, and the trainings are pretty intense so it’s been quite exciting", says a good friend of surfing sensation and fellow Taranakian Paige Hareb. As to her hopes for the matches against Australia and China, Hannah Bromley is unashamedly honest in wanting what every single man, woman and child who follows the Football Ferns’ fortunes wants. "My personal ambition for the tour is to help the Ferns WIN!! We need a win and deserve a win! Other than that, I've been selected for the tour to do a job, and I want to very strongly show that I can do just that, and do it well!!" And if she does, it will give John Herdman another option to consider ahead of the Queen’s Birthday weekend deadline by which he must name the 21 players charged with the task of taking on Japan, England and Mexico in their group in Germany, and hopefully making history for New Zealand football in the process by becoming the first team from this country to reach the last eight at a FIFA World Cup Finals.