Troy Parrott was the Republic of Ireland's hat-trick hero as they dramatically reached the World Cup play-offs, rubber-stamping the his rise after leaving Tottenham in 2024
Troy Parrott wrote his name in Irish football folklore on Sunday to keep the Republic of Ireland's hopes of playing at the 2026 World Cup alive. His sensational hat-trick in their final group game away to Hungary, capped by a dramatic 96th-minute winner, booked Ireland a place in March's play-offs.
Parrott, 23, also scored both goals as the Boys in Green stunned Portugal 2-0 on Thursday in his hometown of Dublin. The striker plays his club football with Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, having left Tottenham on a permanent basis last year for €8million (£6.7m).
After shining in a 2019 pre-season friendly against Juventus, Parrott drew comparisons to Robbie Keane among Spurs fans. But it never worked out in North London for the highly-rated youngster, with Jose Mourinho having some choice words for him in March 2020 when Parrott was Tottenham's only fit striker.
Mourinho told him to stop thinking that he was 'too good' to still be playing for their under-23s when he'd been training with the first-team all season. "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 told a press conference.
"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."
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After joining Millwall on loan later that year, Parrott revealed that he didn't have any qualms with Mourinho, maturely taking his 'helpful advice' on board. "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," he 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."
Fast forward five years and Parrott is his new country's hero, scoring all five goals for Heimir Hallgrimsson's side this month and turning their qualifying campaign around. In a tearful post-match interview with RTE, the 23-year-old said: "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."
Two more wins will send Ireland to North America.