Troy Parrott profile: From Belvo boy to teenage Premier League debut and Dutch renaissance
“I think it’s probably the best night that I’ve ever had in my whole life,” said Troy Parrott after his two goals against Portugal on Thursday evening. “I have no words to describe it. I’m just overwhelmed.”
And that’s how he still was when he met up with his mother Jennifer after the game. “He was a bit quiet, I think he was taking it all in – he’s still taking it all in,” she told Oliver Callan on RTÉ radio.
The 23-year-old has had plenty of memorable days along the way, both for his clubs and his country, especially at underage level, but nothing quite compared to this. And on an overwhelming night like that, there’s a fair chance that he was reflecting on his footballing journey which, like any other, has had its ups and downs.
Earlier in the morning, Belvedere, the schoolboy club Parrott left to join Tottenham when he was just 16, saluted him alongside two throwback photos. “Ireland’s finest, north inner city proud,” they tweeted.
It was from there he set off for London in 2017 to embark on his professional career, the then Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino sufficiently impressed by the young Dubliner to bring him in to training with the first-team squad at an early stage.
By the summer of 2019 he was starting up front alongside Harry Kane and Son Heung-min in preseason friendlies, his appearances including one against Juventus, who featured a certain Cristiano Ronaldo in their line-up.
Troy Parrott celebrates scoring a goal against FC Groningen with AZ Alkmaar team-mate Mateo Chavez. Photograph: Bas Czerwinski/ANP/AFP via Getty Images
Come September of that year, Pochettino gave him his first-team debut, at just 17, in a League Cup match, and three months later, by which time José Mourinho had replaced Pochettino, he was making his first appearance in the Premier League.
There followed, though, a string of loan moves to lower league clubs, Millwall, Ipswich, MK Dons and Preston, injuries not helping his progress, and while Spurs gave Parrott a new contract that was due to keep him at the club until the summer of 2023, he was beginning to assume his future lay elsewhere.
The key move in his career happened in August 2023 when he broadened his horizons, left English shores and joined Dutch club Excelsior on loan. And he hasn’t looked back since switching to the Netherlands.
Nineteen goals in that season with the Rotterdam side earned him a move to AZ Alkmaar, who paid Spurs around €8 million for the striker. He maintained his goalscoring form, describing his debut season with the club as the “best year of my life so far in football”. Inevitably, that led to no end of speculation about him joining one of the bigger Dutch clubs or moving back to the Premier League, but thus far, Alkmaar have held on to him.
Scoring twice against Portugal will, no doubt, have more clubs glancing in his direction, but having found his feet in Dutch football, and saying how he has “loved every second” of his time with Alkmaar, he might not be in any great rush to leave. Unless, of course, they receive an offer they cannot afford to turn down.
For now, he is overwhelmed and Jennifer is pinching herself. “I actually thought I was in a dream,” she said of the experience of watching her son from the stands in the Aviva Stadium. “It was just brilliant. My heart was in my mouth. All of us were there, his brothers and sisters, and we were just full of emotions, we were just crying and jumping around. As soon as I saw him, I just gave him a big hug and told him I was so proud.”
