The child behind the above words who managed to score five goals (!) against Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal and Hungary in one weekend and give an incredible story to the football "book".

Football... saved him

He was born in early February 2002 in Dublin, Ireland, but grew up in Portland Row, one of the capital's notorious areas, one of five children in the family. Football was from the beginning the outlet for little Troy, who could have gotten involved in one of his neighborhood gangs.

His mother, Jennifer, had admitted that football, in essence, saved his life. "He was always quiet. He always loved football. The area we come from is a disadvantaged area in the city center. Football kept him disciplined and kept him alert from getting into trouble."

He took his first steps in a local team called Belvedere FC, he developed, he realized that his main position is a striker and through the various tournaments he took part in, Tottenham saw him and convinced him to get on the plane to move permanently to London.

In the Tottenham academies he impressed everyone. In the U18s he had scored 17 goals in 15 matches, making his coaches immediately promote him to the U21s, bypassing the U19 section. With five goals in 14 appearances and at the same time two full seasons in the Youth League where in one season he counted three goals in five matches (he scored against Barcelona and Inter among others) and in the second he reached six goals in just four games.

Pochettino

Mauricio Pochettino trusted him and promoted him to the first team immediately as a forward, but José Mourinho gave him his... baptism of fire in the Premier League. He was 17 years, 10 months and 3 days old when, in the 85th minute of the match against Burnley, the Portuguese coach chose the young Parrott instead of Dele Alli and put him next to Harry Kane.

Apart from some missions that he was included in, the Irish forward played just four games and a total of just over 120 minutes. At the same time, Spurs fans had begun to compare him to Harry Kane and Robbie Keane, saying how the general situation of strikers for English and Irish football is.

As was logical, all this created enormous pressure on the young footballer, who had a total of four loan spells in lower-division teams in England.

His career had already taken a downward turn, with him choosing to continue in the summer of 2023 with Excelsior in the Netherlands. On August 24!

The maiden season in the first division may not have developed ideally, as the club was relegated to the second division through the play-offs, however, individually, Parrott had made impressive numbers. Especially towards the end of the year, when he had fully adapted to the new conditions.

Throughout the season in the championship he had found the net 10 times, having also had an injury in between, however in the play-offs, he scored seven goals in just four games (!). He fought almost single-handedly to keep the club in the big leagues, but football is not always fair, as the coaches in England used to tell him.

Excelsior were relegated and Parrott returned to Tottenham, but AZ Alkmaar had him on their list and with the sum of 4 million euros they made him theirs to keep him in the big leagues.

Troy Parrott is one of the hottest scorers in Europe this season. Six goals in seven league matches with AZ Alkmaar and seven goals in five matches in the Conference League qualifiers.