who is the new hero of Ireland » Released by Mourinho, loaned to several teams and star in Holland

Troy Parrott is a football player in heaven. The striker had a dream week, undoubtedly the best of his career, as he himself admitted, being absolutely decisive for the Republic of Ireland to secure a place in the 2026 World Cup play-offs: the 23-year-old scored five goals in the two fundamental victories at this stage in November, writes abola.pt.

Attack peak he replaced the injured (and team star) Evan Ferguson and seriously questioned the Brighton player's place on loan at Roma at the heart of the attack for the next few games. The first victims were Portugal in Dublin on Thursday, where they managed a double and avoided elimination from the competition in the fifth stage of the qualifying phase, leaving the outcome for the match against Hungary in Budapest on Sunday.

As Portugal thrashed already eliminated Armenia (9-1), Ireland looked to mount a comeback in Hungary, who twice led, but both times Parrott equalised, again showing his goal-scoring blood. In the last phase of the game (90+6'), with the Hungarians holding on to second place which would have ensured them the play-offs, Troy appeared in the center of the box and brought a historic victory for his country.

The AZ Alkmaar striker has written a new chapter in Ireland's history that will never be forgotten, even if World Cup qualification is not yet guaranteed, with the play-offs coming in March 2026. But if it does happen, it will be even more epic and, who knows, if it's decisive again… history says it's a big possibility.

Troy Parrott, trained at Tottenham and coached by Mourinho

At the age of 15, Troy Parrott left his country and his first club, Belvedere, for north London, namely Tottenham. Just a year later in 2018, the forward joined the U18s and quickly began to impress the English side, earning another promotion in 2019 to the U23s.

It wasn't long before he was called up to the first team by Mauricio Pochettino to be one of Harry Kane's back-ups and made his debut in September 2019. Even as a starter (66 minutes), at the age of 17, in a match in the English League Cup, in which Spurs were tragically eliminated at home to Colchester United, on penalties.

After his debut, he didn't do well, but he often trained with the senior team, alternating with the U23 team. He was called back into the game three more times that season, including with José Mourinho at the helm. The Portuguese coach handed him his Premier League debut, bringing him on in the final minutes against Burnley (5-0) and Wolves (2-3). After that, he was present at another elimination, this time from the FA Cup, with Norwich on penalties.

With no goals or assists for his training club and few minutes played, Parrott was loaned out successively for the next four years. First at Millwall, where he was unsuccessful (14 games and 0 goals), then at Ipswich Town (18 games and 2 goals), and in 2021/22 at MK Dons, where he finally started to show his form goalscoring streak (47 games, 10 goals and 6 assists), followed by Preston North End (34 games and 4 goals).

Troy Parrott, in Tottenham's shirt // Photo: Imago

Move to the Netherlands to replace… Pavlidis

In 2023/24, Parrott decided to change the air and left England, turning to football in the Netherlands. There, he was loaned to Excelsior and played consistently in the first division: 17 goals and 5 assists in 32 games, his best season to date. He was also instrumental in keeping Excelsior in the Eredivisie after reaching the relegation play-off zone, scoring seven goals in four play-off matches.

With these good performances, AZ Alkmaar did not miss the opportunity and, at the end of the loan, permanently transferred Parrott from Tottenham for 4 million euros to replace… Pavlidis, who left that summer for Benfica, in exchange for 18 million euros.

In his debut season at AZ, the Irishman improved his level and scored 20 goals and provided a further 4 assists in 47 matches, also showing a good level in the UEFA Europa League, where he even met Tottenham again, but remained goalless in both matches, in the round of 16, being eliminated (2-3).

For this season, after finishing 5th in the league, his club only secured access to the UEFA Conference League, but Parrott was instrumental in making this possible in the 2024/25 play-offs, and also in the qualifying phase of the European competition in 2025/26, where he scored seven goals and was top scorer. This season, he has 13 goals and 1 assist in 14 games for club, in addition to five goals in four games for his country, two as a starter.

Troy Parrott's history with his country, Ireland

Troy Parrott has this superb style of being decisive in the most important moments of football, he showed it in the service of the two Dutch clubs and he has done it again now for his country. The debut for Ireland took place at the age of 17, at home in a friendly with New Zealand (3-1), in which he assisted one of the goals, but he played his first official match only a year later, against Bulgaria (0-0).

In 33 matches, Parrott has 10 goals and 3 assists, but the most curious thing is that half of these goals came in the last two matches and before this dream week he had only one official goal for his country, in the 2022 Nations League against Scotland (3-0). In addition, he became the first player in Ireland's history to score an away hat-trick. Troy Parrott looks to be in the best form of his career, exploding for both club and country.