The goosebumps from his remarkable winner in Hungary have gone “a little bit” by now admits Troy Parrott as the Republic of Ireland’s upcoming World Cup playoff in Czechia appears on the horizon.
Parrott’s brace against Portugal and his hat-trick against Hungary will never be forgotten by the forward, or by any Irish person in truth, but his focus now is purely on firing Ireland to their first World Cup since 2002.
“I’ve done all my watching. The goosebumps are gone a little bit now,” Parrott tells the UK Independent.
“Sometimes I don’t like looking back at it, or I stop it just after the celebration, because they kicked off and nearly had a shot.
“I still think that shot is gonna go in, so I knock it off before that.
“My phone did not stop for two weeks after it. And, ultimately, it hits more when it’s for your country as well.
“Growing up, that’s what you want to do… It’s something that I’ll have for the rest of my life.
“But look, that’s not going to be my career, you know. I’m not going to be that fella who scored five goals one time in 2025. I want to have more big moments like that, hopefully starting in March.
“We’re going to give it everything. If we win, we win. Nobody knows what’s going to happen. But one thing I can say is we’re going to go into the games full of confidence.
“The chance is still there, and that’s all we need.”
His goalscoring heroics for Ireland have seen the comparisons between the 24-year-old striker and Robbie Keane re-emerge.
The Dublin native had often been compared to his idol, and fellow Dublin native, while he was on the books at Tottenham Hotspur but it was only after he left North London and enjoyed spells elsewhere that he truly began to live up to the hype, much to the benefit of his current club AZ Alkmaar.
“It was kind of everywhere. The next Robbie Keane, and the next this and the next that… I’m happy to not be in that anymore,” added Parrott.
“When I was 17 or 18, I probably thought I had all the answers, but I hadn’t a clue.
“And then you can read into stuff and think, ‘yeah, maybe I should be playing’ and then, really, you don’t actually have any idea if you’re ready or not.
“I felt ready, but I don’t think I was. I don’t think I was physically developed enough to be playing against the big centre-halves of the Premier League.
“But obviously, I just wanted to play, I was really smashing it at the underage in the academy. But, looking back… who knows, I didn’t really get too many opportunities.
“But I think all of those experiences moulded me into what I’m becoming now.
“I would never have thought about coming to a foreign country. Now it probably would be a thought if I could go back and change it.
“Look, I tried England, I tried the Championship, I tried League One, I just wanted to explore something else in a different country, and, since I’ve been here, I’ve loved it. I feel it’s a lot less physical, it’s more technical, and that suits me as well.”
