Troy Parrott secured a World Cup play-off place for the Republic of Ireland on Sunday and, in doing so, hinted at finally fulfilling the vast potential he showed at Tottenham.
For many, Troy Parrott taking centre stage has been a long time coming.
The centre-forward was the Republic of Ireland’s hero over the international break, as he followed up a match-winning brace against Portugal in their penultimate World Cup qualifier with a sensational hat-trick in a 3-2 win over Hungary on Sunday night. His goals sent his country into a play-off for a spot at next summer’s tournament, meaning they are within touching distance of a first appearance at football’s showpiece event in 24 years.
The Republic of Ireland had needed nothing less than a win in Budapest, but they went behind twice on the night and trailed as late as the 80th minute. Up against a Hungary team who were also chasing a play-off spot, had home advantage, have qualified for the last three European Championships, and boast stars such as Liverpool duo Dominik Szoboszlai and Milos Kerkez, Ireland’s hopes were slim.
Then, with 10 minutes to go, Parrott, who earlier put away a highly pressured penalty, chipped in an equaliser and, at the death, poked home a dramatic winner to send the Irish fans, his teammates, and himself into delirium.
“It’s really a fairytale,” Parrott said afterwards while fighting back the tears. “You can’t even dream about [doing] something like that.”
This is the level that the 23-year-old had once been highly tipped to reach. He moved to Tottenham Hotspur at 15, and is a fairly well-known name in England simply because there were once such high hopes for him. Nonetheless, he may still be considered an unlikely hero on the international stage given he ultimately couldn’t make a success of his time at Spurs.
He was handed his debut aged 17, way back in September 2019, and a couple of months later made a first appearance in the Premier League, but despite relentless fan clamour for him to play, he never really looked cut out for that standard of football. “Don’t think that Parrott is the second Harry Kane because he’s just a young kid that needs to work,” then-Spurs manager José Mourinho warned at the time. Parrott would only go on to make one more Premier League appearance for the club.
He spent much of his time at Spurs out on loan, and without much fanfare in four spells at Millwall, Ipswich, MK Dons and Preston. Questions about his attitude persisted as he appeared not to be developing as quickly as the fans hoped he would.
Years earlier, Mourinho had voiced concerns about him, claiming Parrott, still a teenager at the time, appeared to consider himself above playing with the youth team.
“Every time he was playing with the kids, he was playing with the mentality of, ‘I shouldn’t be here, I am too good to be here, it’s not here that I want to play,’” Mourinho said. Whether that was the reason or not, he did not fulfill his potential in England.
Parrott enjoyed a better time on loan at Excelsior in the Netherlands, where he scored at least four more goals (10) in the league than any other teammate despite playing fewer than half of the available minutes, but there was still a side to him that needed curbing. After a 4-0 win, in which he had scored, provided an assist and been substituted, he ran onto the pitch to join in a full-time melee and petulantly flicked the ear of an opponent. He received a straight red card for his troubles and missed the next game, banned.
However, the move away from England appeared to do him good. He has since said that the media pressure “used to get to me a bit” at Spurs. Stepping away has proved a positive move.
His year at Excelsior was a positive one despite their relegation from the Dutch top flight, and Parrott did enough to earn a permanent switch to AZ Alkmaar in the summer of 2024. He has found a happy home in the Eredivisie, and the chance to develop into something like the player he was always expected to become.
He has always been the kind of striker who stays high up the pitch and focuses on scoring goals, and his movement and anticipation close to goal both appear to have improved during his time with AZ.
Only two players scored more than Parrott’s 14 Eredivisie goals in 2024-25, and he added four more in AZ’s run to the Europa League last 16, where they were eliminated by Tottenham.
He didn’t rely on exceptional finishing to get those goals, underperforming compared to his expected goals slightly and instead scoring consistently thanks to his ability to get into good positions – something he showed with significant results with his injury-time winner against Hungary.
His non-penalty xG total of 14.0 was bettered by only one player in the Eredivisie last season, and the graphic below shows just how concentrated his shots were around the edge of the six-yard box. His average of 0.20 xG per non-penalty shot (statistically a one-in-five chance of a goal) was among the highest in the Eredivisie.
Parrott’s job at AZ is to provide the focal point to the attack and look to stretch the opposition. He constantly makes runs looking to get in behind, and does a lot of thankless work without seeing a great deal of the ball. He averaged just 33.3 touches of the ball per 90 last season, but still remained a real threat. He had just 11.5 touches for every shot he attempted – the second lowest rate of anyone to play more than 2,000 minutes.
This season, he has become even more single-minded in his goal threat. He is having almost four more touches of the ball per 90 (37.1), and a big chunk of those extra touches are coming either in or very close to the penalty area. So far in 2025-26, he is having a shot every 8.9 touches of the ball.
The result is even more goals. He is averaging 1.04 goals per 90 in the Eredivisie this term, though that is helped by the two penalties he has scored. That said, even when discounting penalties, his 0.69 goals per 90 is still the best of his senior career, and that is made all the more impressive by the fact he has missed two months of the season with injury. In his first start after returning, he scored in a 2-0 win at Ajax, and followed that up with a brace in a 4-1 win over Utrecht.
He is now doing what the best forwards do, outperforming his xG while also regularly getting into dangerous positions to score. To prove he is capable of becoming an elite forward, Parrott needs to carry on finishing chances off at a rate like this for more than just the start of a season.
Those numbers also don’t include scoring all five of the Republic of Ireland’s goals in their two crucial World Cup qualifiers, which could provide a springboard for Parrott to take his game to the next level – the level at which he has always so clearly had the talent to reach but has been unable to as of yet.
AZ are third in the Eredivisie and should be competitive in the UEFA Conference League, too, while the Republic of Ireland are into the World Cup play-offs with Parrott spearheading their fight to be playing in next summer’s tournament. That will be played in part in the USA, which was of course the host of one of the three World Cups that Ireland have played in (1994). It’s all shaping up to be a massive 12 months for him and his career.
When Parrott left Spurs, it felt like it could have been the end for his chances of making it at the top, but this week has proved he isn’t giving up on his chances of playing on the biggest stage just yet. For the first time in a long time, there is reason for optimism that the former Tottenham man is heading for the top.