It was a moment that caused many Irish people to lose their capacity for rational thought. It was already the kind of high-stakes circumstance where the intensity of emotion overrides everything else, but there was none of that for the man at the centre. Troy Parrott was alert to everything, which was exactly how he scored the goal that meant everything to a nation dreaming of reaching the World Cup 2026.
“It’s more of a mental thing,” the 24-year-old says now, sitting in a very relaxed mood in his Amsterdam apartment. “It’s just getting in the box and hoping that the ball is going to fall.”
There’s then a pause.
“And believing that it’s going to fall as well.”
Parrott is discussing his hat-trick goal against Hungary, the 96th-minute match-winner that secured an improbable 3-2 comeback in Budapest and has also sent Ireland to a World Cup qualification play-off in March. Even that was only possible after Parrott sensationally scored twice in a defiant 2-0 win over Portugal.
The very feeling of Budapest is still about so much more than merely facts, significant as they are. It’s about that belief, and happiness that football represents. That’s what seized global attention and briefly made Parrott one of the world’s most famous players.
He admits he’s long stopped replaying the Hungary goal. “I’ve done all my watching,” he laughs. “The goosebumps are gone a little bit now.”
On the rare occasions he still looks back, though, he finds the same feeling takes over – and it’s not what you’d expect.
“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.”
That’s just as well, because Parrott admits he can’t look at his emotional post-match interview, either.
“I can’t watch that!”
A lot of the world has, reflecting another mind-bending element to this. Parrott was the centre of one of the most famous moments of 2025.
“My phone did not stop for two weeks after it,” Parrott says. “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.”
Such a promise carries even more weight given Parrott’s distinctive career path. Having been a frustrated Tottenham Hotspur academy graduate, who then tried different EFL loans, Parrott opted for the Dutch Eredivisie in 2023. It afforded him the space required. In moving from Excelsior to AZ Alkmaar, Parrott accelerated. “Flying,” as he puts it. A scoring record of one in two has already become two in three, forming “probably the best spell of my career”.
Such words are thrilling to anyone who saw Parrott’s talent as a teenager. He was then talked of as “the next Robbie Keane”, but that expectation created problems. Excitement was soon replaced by concern that he would never fulfil his talent.
“It was kind of everywhere,” Parrott says of the hype. “The next Robbie Keane, and the next this and the next that… I’m happy to not be in that anymore.”
Asked whether any of this helped in any way, Parrott flatly says “no”. There’s even a hint it went to his head.
“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.”
Parrott does have praise for then Spurs manager Jose Mourinho.
“He made time to try to develop me, which positions to be in, using Harry Kane as a guide.”
Not demanding then?
“On the pitch, he was. Off the pitch, he was a very good character.” They had a warm chat after AZ Alkmaar played Fenerbahce in the Europa League last season. Such experiences are why Parrott still wouldn’t dismiss the traditional Irish pathway of going to England.
“It’s just the most natural route, so close to home,” he maintains. “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.”
And as the goals have increased, so have the elements to Parrott’s game. His last six have been with his left foot, after he specifically honed that.
“I’m always trying to improve,” he says. “I think my hold-up play is also getting a lot better. I’m more physically built-up, these are all things I’m working on on a daily basis.”
That physique was certainly a source of focus after he euphorically whipped off his top in Budapest, but he doesn’t see that as facetious. You can instead hear he has evidently had a moment of realisation about what he wants his career to be.
“I think it’s very important. These are all probably two or three per cents, the recovery, the food, the sleep, but I think when everything’s coming together, it gives your body the best chance to keep playing 90 minutes week after week. So I feel it’s a mixture of different things.
“I’m learning, I’m getting better, I’m developing, I’m enjoying myself. I’m happy off the pitch so, look, I’m really happy with the way my journey’s going.”
Hence he was primed going into that fateful week in November, a mood that amplified that of the team. Having played in a seemingly doomed 2-1 win to Armenia, Parrott does credit manager Heimir Hallgrimsson with “trying to help us have belief, even though the rest of the country probably didn’t”.
“That’s how I felt, especially this season, just in a kind of flow state, where I’m going to games really positive and believing I can score goals and play very well. I said before Portugal that we have a chance and we’ll have to go and do it,” he adds.
“The last few years as well, we haven’t had any good results against the top teams, so we all believed in the changing room we were due. So, Portugal, everything on the night just felt right. The goals, the [Cristiano Ronaldo] red card, we were killing them on the counter-attack. And I think, once we beat them, it was like a sign. ‘Now’ is it, basically all or nothing going into the Sunday. We were flying.”
He was soaring. After a poacher’s header to put Ireland 1-0 up against Portugal, Parrott then really displayed that talent with a weaving run and finish. That goal was only superseded in quality by the crucial equaliser against Hungary, to make it 2-2 on 80 minutes. Parrott showed presence and precision to control the ball and then deftly lift it over Denes Dibusz all in one movement.
Aside from being the sort of thing that doesn’t usually happen to Ireland, this was the sort of goal that Ireland haven’t historically scored. It does raise a more philosophical question, relevant to the expectation around him as a youth. Is Parrott reviving Dublin’s street football heritage?
“Possibly… I think it’s just, in the moment, that’s what came into my head.”
Given this ingenuity, a Roberto Baggio quote is put to Parrott; whether he actively tries “to do the magical thing… but in an effective way”?
“No,” he says, laughing. “To be honest, I just want the ball in the back of the net. Whatever way I can get it in there, I’m going to do it. But look, sometimes it might look like that, if you chip the keeper or something. But, for me, it’s just about finding the best way to get the ball into the goal.
“I think you’ve seen the peno I tried to chip [a missed Panenka against Twente], that’s just what came into my head.
“But then, obviously, other things happen, where you might have to change your mind last second. Like, if a defender’s coming, or if the keeper stays up, then I have to put it low. These are all split-second decisions. This is what goes through the head of a footballer.
“It’s about seeing what opportunities present themselves. So, when I was going through [against Hungary], the keeper ducked down early, so I knew I could chip it over him. It just happened in the moment, really.”
Then, the big moment happened. As the clock ticked into the 95th minute with Ireland needing a goal, Parrott says he felt that “real belief”.
Again, he was fully alert to what was required, which is why he can remember Caoimhin Kelleher’s launch to John Scales with such clarity.
He recalls: “I was all the way out on the sideline and I’m just thinking, ‘just get into the box’… and then, once you see Scalesy winning the header, it’s just trying to judge where it’s going to land.”
If the goal captured the attention of the world, then the aftermath played on emotion in a heartfelt interview.
“It just came out,” Parrott remembers. “My family was there right behind the bench as well. It was a beautiful day.”
And week. Although the rest of the Irish squad immediately returned to Dublin for celebrations, Parrott stayed in Budapest for two days.
“My family weren’t flying home until Tuesday because there were no flights home, so I didn’t want to just leave them,” he explains.
“It was probably better that way, gave me a bit more time to wind down, relax, and kind of take it all in.”
The exact same sensibility is why he’s “more focused now on looking forward”.
It’s similar with his club future. The Independent has already reported how Parrott has firm interest from Fulham, Real Betis and Wolfsburg, with scores of other clubs monitoring. That will escalate if he plays in a World Cup. While the inclination might then be to return to the Premier League, one consideration has been to go to the Bundesliga first.
“It’s a hard question,” Parrott says. “I haven’t thought about it. I feel where I’m at right now, I’m in a very, very good position, playing with a smile on my face. So whatever happens is going to happen. I’m just focused on the now to be honest.”
And now involves the build-up to the play-off with Czechia, before a potential showdown with Denmark or North Macedonia.
“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.”
He has that belief, to be more than just one week in November.
