Ex-Tottenham striker Troy Parrott became a national hero by scoring five goals in two games to help the Republic of Ireland book their place in the World Cup play-offs over the weekend
Troy Parrott’s heroics for the Republic of Ireland have left Tottenham fans thinking what might’ve been. Parrott, 23, scored both goals in his country’s 2-0 win against Portugal in Dublin on Thursday before bagging a hat-trick during Sunday’s dramatic 3-2 win away to Hungary.
His haul of five goals, the last of which was a 96th-minute winner, sealed Ireland’s place in the World Cup play-offs, recovering from a dismal start to their qualifying campaign. The striker is the new poster boy of Irish football, having been on the books at Spurs between 2017 and 2024.
Parrott joined Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar on a permanent basis last year, with Tottenham selling him for €8 million (£6.7m). After drawing comparisons to Robbie Keane following an impressive display in a 2019 pre-season clash with Juventus, big things were expected of him.
Jose Mourinho was appointed a few months later and in March 2020, Parrott ended up being Spurs’ only fit striker. As fans urged Mourinho to give him a chance, Parrott continued playing in the under-23s and, according to his boss, made his frustration clear.
“I told him before the (youth team) game: ‘Every time you play with the kids of your age, you have to show your colleagues why you are the privileged one’ because it was something he was not doing,” Mourinho said at a press conference.
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“Every time he was playing with the kids, he was playing with the mentality of, ‘I shouldn’t be here’ or, ‘I am too good to be here’. I had exactly the same words with Scott McTominay (at Manchester United).
“He was not loved in his age group because he was not there with the right frame of mind. The moment we started changing that lots of things started changing for him. Troy cannot go there [the under‐age teams] with discontent, contempt.
“It is a process. So everything goes very, very well. But this is a world where lots of people don’t even know if Troy has long hair or short hair, or is blond or is dark.
“They don’t even know that and they speak about Troy, Troy, Troy. There was a guy behind me on the bench the other day: ‘Play Troy, play Troy’. I don’t think he knows Troy.”
The following season, Parrott joined Millwall on loan and was asked about Mourinho’s comments – and he gave a mature response. “To be fair, he’s such an experienced manager and he’s done nearly everything in the game, so if he feels like that’s right then there must be some truth in it and I had to take it on the chin,” Parrott explained.
“I was speaking to coaching staff and players finding out what I needed to do to be better. Because, obviously, Mourinho has worked with some of the best strikers there’s ever been.
“To get advice off him was great. I knew what I needed to do. It was helpful advice.”
Five years later, Parrott is hot property and linked with a return to the Premier League. In an emotional interview with RTE after Sunday’s comeback, the 23-year-old beamed: “This is why we love football because anything can happen.
“I just love where I’m from. My family are here. My mum is so proud of me. This is the first time I’ve cried in years. The boys are all crying over there.
“I don’t think I’ll have a better night in my life. It’s a fairytale, you couldn’t dream anything like that.”
