World Cup qualification: Troy Parrott as Ireland’s hero – with tears in the playoffs

The guy with the stubble beard stammered and panted deeply. Everything is so emotional right now, “sorry”. Troy Parrott couldn’t get much more out of the interview on Ireland’s national TV station RTE; he first had to wipe his face with his jersey. “Tears of happiness,” as he reported in a shaky voice, while in the background, of course, Irish fans sang the football classic “The Fields of Athenry.” A hymn about suffering, hunger and that spark of hope that Irish people always carry in their hearts, even when things are bad for them. And things were really bad for Ireland’s national team in this World Cup qualification. But then Troy Parrott, 23, the Emerald Isle’s new figurehead, came along and scored three goals at the Ferenc Puskas Stadium.

3-2 against Hungary, with a fairytale showdown in the 96th minute as Parrott sent his team and an entire country into ecstasy. With a goal that encapsulated everything that defines Irish football: a desperate long ball from the coast of Connemara, a header and somehow a tip-in. Aesthetically almost identical to another unforgettable tour de force from the “Boys in Green”. That 1-1 final act by Robbie Keane at the 2002 World Cup against Germany, when they last took part in a final tournament and all warnings about the willpower of the “Irish people” (DFB team boss Rudi Völler) came true.

Folklore always plays a role when Irish teams create sporting treasures out of their limited possibilities. And it almost doesn’t matter that this heroic story is actually unfinished so far. The Irish led by their national coach Heimir Hallgrimsson have not yet qualified in Group F despite their overtaking maneuver against Hungary in the final meters. Their ten points have lifted them into second place behind Portugal and they now head to the playoffs, where even greater efforts will be required to make it to the World Cup stage for the fourth time after 1990, 1994 and 2002. Nevertheless, the outpouring of emotion reached considerable proportions, the Guinness was sprayed in pubs around the globe, where the huge Irish diaspora enjoyed the “most amazing quarter of an hour in Irish football history” (Irish Times) celebrated. And attacker Parrott indulged in saint veneration, not only scoring three goals in Budapest, but also two in a 2-0 win against Portugal in his hometown of Dublin.

Last week, the man from Dutch club AZ Alkmaar had already raved about a career highlight after his brace; he thought that “moments like this are something to dream about.” Little did he know what would follow on Sunday in Hungary when he secured his place in Irish heaven alongside St. Patrick and Arthur Guinness. With a penalty goal that equalized the Hungarian lead (15th minute), a snap moment to make it 2-2 (80th) and finally the 3-2, after which he was buried under a ball of celebration in green and white. “Today I don’t think I’ll ever have a better evening in my life,” he explained when he had regained his composure during the television interview, “that’s why we love football.”

Parrott’s personal rise accompanies a small tangent to the Bundesliga: Last summer, VfL Wolfsburg was also said to have tried to recruit him after he had finally shown his skills in the Dutch league at Excelsior Rotterdam and in Alkmaar. That of a real goalscorer who senses space, who converts chances with surgical finesse and who is not deterred by a stalled career in England. He grew up on dreary Buckingham Street in Dublin’s north, just a few kilometers from Croke Park, the national stadium. His mother recently reported on childhood days in an area far away from the Green Island clichés.

Parrott’s luck was that in the everyday gray of the apartment blocks he had nothing else on his mind than football. He kicked between brick buildings and in the Belvedere Youth Club, confident on the pitch, reserved in the rest of his life. So his path led to the youth department of Tottenham Hotspur, where he was long seen as the new Robbie Keane (Spurs attacker in the noughties). But what others see is not always so easy to implement: the young Parrott needed a few detours via loans to Millwall, Ipswich, Preston or Milton Keynes in order to grow up. Scoring goals was difficult for him in England’s tough underclass, and there was also the burden of being considered one of the biggest Irish promises in years. He only sparked in the Eredivisie in 2023 and 2024, but he has never been as good as he is now: seven goals in six league games with Alkmaar in the current season, plus five goals within three days for the national team.

And as befits a people’s favorite, he commented on his penalty goal against the Hungarians at the moment of maximum tension with a sentence that reveals his character: “I would rather have the pressure on me than on someone else, that way I have it in my hands.” The Irish’s playoff opponent will be drawn in Zurich on Thursday – Troy Parrott will be ready.