LOUIS DIGNAM MAY have been the hero of UCD’s playoff triumph on Saturday, but it was back to reality this week.
When The 42 calls, the 22-year-old has just come from a lecture.
After completing a three-year degree in sports and exercise management, he is now studying for a master’s in Management Consultancy at the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.
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And while he may ordinarily need to give college nights out a miss owing to his football commitments, it will feel worth it for what Dignam and his teammates achieved last weekend.
Willie O’Connor’s side earned a stunning, against-the-odds win over Drogheda, consigning the 2024 FAI Cup champions to relegation and ensuring UCD will play top-flight football next year for the first time since 2023.
Dignam was pivotal to the triumph – the midfielder’s unstoppable finish into the top corner in the 66th minute proved to be the winning goal.
Absolute scenes!! 🤯🤯
Louis Dignam gives UCD the lead!
Watch live now on Virgin Media Two. https://t.co/ToqXndMegU
The youngster’s own rise was arguably as improbable as UCD’s victory.
He will be 23 in May, yet is playing his first full season in senior football, contributing nine goals, meaning he finished among the top scorers in the second tier.
“He’s very unfortunate to be nominated for Player of the Year. And that, in his first season, tells you how good he’s been,” O’Connor tells The 42.
The reason it took Dignam slightly longer than others to reach this level was a decision he made at 16 to stop playing soccer and focus on rugby.
The Dubliner attended what he describes as “a big rugby school,” Blackrock College.
“It’s tough to get away from the rugby there,” he says. “All my mates were playing.
“I had a few injuries when I was in fourth and fifth year – I thought the best thing for me was just to give the rugby a go. It was handy – we’d play rugby, then go to night study; it was good for the Leaving Cert as well.
“I took a break from football. At the time, I didn’t think too much of it. When you’re in Blackrock, it’s a bit ‘rugby is the most important thing’.
“And I don’t regret playing at all – it was some of the best years of my life.
“I think the rugby still stands to me. It was so physical, and there was so much strength and conditioning.
“When I finished the Leaving Cert, I knew I was going to go back to football, and I knew I was going to have to go through the second team in UCD to get to the first team, but I didn’t mind that. Playing Leinster Senior League helped me massively as well because I was playing football week in, week out, and I knew I was guaranteed minutes. The standard wasn’t the best, but I was hoping to make that next level.
“A couple of lads slag me saying: ‘If you didn’t play rugby, where would you be now?’ But I’m privileged to be in a position where I’m going into the Premier Division with UCD, so I wouldn’t really change much.”
Louis Dignam celebrates with supporters as UCD are promoted. Tom Maher / INPHO
Before committing to rugby, Dignam originally lined out for Mount Merrion and St Joseph’s Boys and played a couple of years at League of Ireland underage level with UCD.
He then spent roughly two years in the Leinster Senior League before being promoted to the Students’ first team.
Dignam, who graduated from school in 2023 and operated at out-half or fullback, also played rugby to a good level.
“I was on the second team, played a few games for the first team, and I was a reserve for the Senior Cup team.
“The rugby in Blackrock is very competitive, and a lot of lads I used to play with are playing for Leinster, Connacht and whatnot. So I was around the fringes of the first team there.”
Dignam, in fact, kept both sports up from age seven until around 16.
“But then I had terrible injuries for a few years because Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, I was doing double sessions and my body was just breaking down. So when it came to U17, I was like: ‘I have to pick one or the other, because I can’t keep getting injured like this.’ I think that did help because I was overtraining and had a bad back injury that kept me out for a year.
“I’ve been injury-free for a few years now, so honing in on the one sport helped me, but I was happy that I kept both of them on for so many years because it helped me [in the long run] physically and athletically.”
Dignam is following in a family tradition – his father, Keith and brother, Mark, also represented UCD in soccer.
“I felt if I were to give something a proper shot in my career, it would be football,” he adds.
He officially joined UCD’s first team in July 2025 and played around “10 to 15″ matches last year, but his game has gone to another level over the last 12 months.
He continues: “This year, I had a proper pre-season from the start of January. That really stuck with me throughout the year, getting to know all the boys and the staff much better.
“2026 was my first proper season. It was just all football. You’re in five or six days a week, in the gym or on the pitch. I’m not sure how many sessions we did this year, but it was a lot.
“I always felt like I knew I’d get to this level, but other people, rightly so, probably didn’t think so.
“I was probably a bit too heavy when I came out of school. As in, when you’re in playing rugby, you’re just pumping weights all the time. So I probably lost a few kilos, but naturally, when you’re out playing football, you lose them easily enough. Probably even now, I can still become more of a soccer athlete. I still think I’m not where I want to be physically. I still know that I’ve plenty to improve on.
“You always think: ‘Maybe I should have stuck with the rugby, or maybe I should have done this or done that.’ But my dad was always like, ‘If you just keep going, you’ll get to the first team, and then you’ll kick on from there.’”
Because he’s had such a short career so far, experiences like the Drogheda triumph are still relatively new to Dignam, and he will be aiming to create more unforgettable memories in the Premier Division next season.
“Playing in front of that sort of crowd [in the Drogheda playoff], I think it was around three and a half thousand; I haven’t really experienced something like that before. It was definitely the best moment of my career, the best day of my life, 100%.”
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Why one of Irish football's brightest prospects spent two years playing rugby
LOUIS DIGNAM MAY have been the hero of UCD’s playoff triumph on Saturday, but it was back to reality this week.
When The 42 calls, the 22-year-old has just come from a lecture.
After completing a three-year degree in sports and exercise management, he is now studying for a master’s in Management Consultancy at the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.
And while he may ordinarily need to give college nights out a miss owing to his football commitments, it will feel worth it for what Dignam and his teammates achieved last weekend.
Willie O’Connor’s side earned a stunning, against-the-odds win over Drogheda, consigning the 2024 FAI Cup champions to relegation and ensuring UCD will play top-flight football next year for the first time since 2023.
Dignam was pivotal to the triumph – the midfielder’s unstoppable finish into the top corner in the 66th minute proved to be the winning goal.
The youngster’s own rise was arguably as improbable as UCD’s victory.
He will be 23 in May, yet is playing his first full season in senior football, contributing nine goals, meaning he finished among the top scorers in the second tier.
“He’s very unfortunate to be nominated for Player of the Year. And that, in his first season, tells you how good he’s been,” O’Connor tells The 42.
The reason it took Dignam slightly longer than others to reach this level was a decision he made at 16 to stop playing soccer and focus on rugby.
The Dubliner attended what he describes as “a big rugby school,” Blackrock College.
“It’s tough to get away from the rugby there,” he says. “All my mates were playing.
“I had a few injuries when I was in fourth and fifth year – I thought the best thing for me was just to give the rugby a go. It was handy – we’d play rugby, then go to night study; it was good for the Leaving Cert as well.
“I took a break from football. At the time, I didn’t think too much of it. When you’re in Blackrock, it’s a bit ‘rugby is the most important thing’.
“And I don’t regret playing at all – it was some of the best years of my life.
“I think the rugby still stands to me. It was so physical, and there was so much strength and conditioning.
“A couple of lads slag me saying: ‘If you didn’t play rugby, where would you be now?’ But I’m privileged to be in a position where I’m going into the Premier Division with UCD, so I wouldn’t really change much.”
Before committing to rugby, Dignam originally lined out for Mount Merrion and St Joseph’s Boys and played a couple of years at League of Ireland underage level with UCD.
He then spent roughly two years in the Leinster Senior League before being promoted to the Students’ first team.
Dignam, who graduated from school in 2023 and operated at out-half or fullback, also played rugby to a good level.
“I was on the second team, played a few games for the first team, and I was a reserve for the Senior Cup team.
“The rugby in Blackrock is very competitive, and a lot of lads I used to play with are playing for Leinster, Connacht and whatnot. So I was around the fringes of the first team there.”
Dignam, in fact, kept both sports up from age seven until around 16.
“I’ve been injury-free for a few years now, so honing in on the one sport helped me, but I was happy that I kept both of them on for so many years because it helped me [in the long run] physically and athletically.”
Dignam is following in a family tradition – his father, Keith and brother, Mark, also represented UCD in soccer.
“I felt if I were to give something a proper shot in my career, it would be football,” he adds.
He officially joined UCD’s first team in July 2025 and played around “10 to 15″ matches last year, but his game has gone to another level over the last 12 months.
He continues: “This year, I had a proper pre-season from the start of January. That really stuck with me throughout the year, getting to know all the boys and the staff much better.
“I always felt like I knew I’d get to this level, but other people, rightly so, probably didn’t think so.
“I was probably a bit too heavy when I came out of school. As in, when you’re in playing rugby, you’re just pumping weights all the time. So I probably lost a few kilos, but naturally, when you’re out playing football, you lose them easily enough. Probably even now, I can still become more of a soccer athlete. I still think I’m not where I want to be physically. I still know that I’ve plenty to improve on.
Because he’s had such a short career so far, experiences like the Drogheda triumph are still relatively new to Dignam, and he will be aiming to create more unforgettable memories in the Premier Division next season.
“Playing in front of that sort of crowd [in the Drogheda playoff], I think it was around three and a half thousand; I haven’t really experienced something like that before. It was definitely the best moment of my career, the best day of my life, 100%.”
League of Ireland LOI louis dignam Scenic Route Soccer Drogheda United UCD