Even saviours can’t do it every week. One Sunday on from the miracle of Budapest, Troy Parrott was back in the AZ Alkmaar day job. As you may deduce from the lack of headlines over the past hours, it was not Hungary revisited.
Parrott did score again, and for a minute or two it looked as if he was going to perform another rescue act on another team. But Friesland is far from Budapest, atmospherically as well as geographically, and here at the Abe Lenstra stadium in Heerenveen in the Eredivisie, as snow replaced sunshine, defeat replaced victory.
It meant that while a week earlier Parrott’s arms were outstretched in jubilation, here they were in frustration. It started early, AZ were 2-0 down at half-time – deservedly – and it ended 3-1. On the final whistle, Parrott walked off with his head down, gloves still on in the bitter chill. When asked about the contrast between his two Sundays, he replied: “Of course it’s different. Last Sunday we won, today we lost.”
In black and white, it appears a terse response. The delivery was not meant in that way, but Parrott was a frustrated figure nonetheless. He talked for a few minutes with reporters and mentioned “frustration” several times.
READ MORE
But the striker, as he showed in post-match interviews last Sunday, is not a chippy character. Even so, two league defeats on top of the loss at Crystal Palace in the Conference League means AZ have lost three in a row and conceded 11 goals. Heerenveen are hardly Arsenal – the win took them to ninth – but they passed through and around AZ with too much comfort for Parrott and colleagues. As well as scoring those three goals, they hit the woodwork twice.
Parrott’s goal came with 15 minutes left when the scoreline was still 2-0. It was a fine, intuitive striker’s finish, rather than the culmination of coherent AZ attacking.Briefly, he thought it might stimulate a second consecutive Sunday comeback. But it was 3-1 four minutes later and as Parrott said afterwards, “when that went in, the game was done”.
This was where, in September 2023, while with Excelsior on loan from Tottenham, the Irishman scored his first goal in Dutch football. He also scored his first AZ goals against Heerenveen 12 months later following his €8 million permanent transfer – four goals in a 9-1 win, with Robin van Persie in the Heerenveen dugout. He might have considered Heerenveen lucky opposition; instead he recalled a 3-1 defeat here in March.
“It’s football, it can go from the highest of the highs to a low so quick,” he said. “So yeah, feeling very frustrated today.”
But Parrott knows that, at least, this drew a line under a week of national and international attention he said has been “a bit chaotic”. It was not a complaint; he is appreciative of the coverage his hat-trick in Hungary has generated. One Dutch headline described him as “lerse volksheld” – an Irish folk hero.
“It’s nice to have some good recognition,” he said.
He was not asked directly, but seemed to acknowledge his career trajectory has not been what some anticipated when he joined Spurs as a teenager.
“I worked really hard to get there and it didn’t happen overnight,” he said of his development as a player. “So it’s nice to see the hard work and progress is there.
“I always believed it would come, I just never knew when. I always believed, for sure. I knew it was going to happen, I just didn’t know when.”
Of his family’s sudden media profile, he smiled and said: “It’s nice to see they’re also getting a . . . bit of fame, especially my nan.
“It’s been quite chaotic. I took a few days with the family to settle back down and get my head switched on to coming back here. I came back Thursday, the reception was really good, all my teammates and the staff were really happy for me and congratulated me. It was really nice.”
Had it been difficult to clear his head?
“After the first couple of days, I thought it would be, but I kind of put myself with family and let it settle down a little bit to get fully focused on coming back ... As I say, it was a bit chaotic for the first few days.
“But I was ready for today’s game. I’d one chance in the first half which I should have scored, but today we didn’t play like we can. In the final third, we didn’t have the quality to create chances and I include myself in that. We have to go back and look at that.”
As for the playoff draw against Czech Republic, which is what those unforgettable goals were all about, what does he think of it?
“I think it’s good. We know it’s going to be difficult, but after the last two games everyone is going to go into it feeling confident that we can go to the World Cup.”
Has he spoken to his Czech teammate Matej Sin, who came on at half-time on Sunday?
“I’ve spoken to him a little bit, but he hasn’t told me anything. I’m going to keep trying.”
In the Eredivisie, AZ remain third. But they are 10 points behind leaders PSV Eindhoven and on this evidence there will be no Dutch title lifted in Alkmaar next May. They are missing players, such as injured captain Jordy Clasie.
AZ aspirations are to keep reaching Europe and developing players in their respected academy. Two years ago Alkmaar won the Uefa Youth League, defeating Barcelona and Real Madrid along the way. Teenager Kees Smit is the latest sensation, though he did not show it against Heerenveen.
Next for AZ, of course, is a home date against Shelbourne on Thursday night in the Europa Conference League. Shels have sold out their allocation and it will be an occasion at the AFAS stadium. It will bring more Irish focus, but Parrott is relaxed about that. “I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be nice to see some Irish fans in the stadium. I’m excited for the game, I’ve got a few of my family coming over.”
In 2016, Dundalk got a 1-1 draw there when Stephen Kenny’s team were down to 10 men. The stadium is like Heerenveen’s, an example to Irish football of proper infrastructure. It is on the edge of town, a half-hour walk from the Gunnery’s Irish pub in the old, lively centre, or the number nine bus. Given this is Parrott’s AZ number and he supports Shamrock Rovers, it might be considered an omen, bad or good.
Parrott’s soaring popularity at home is not quite replicated in Alkmaar, but it is getting there. On Saturday afternoon at the stadium, there was a steady flow upstairs into the club shop. Much on sale here, from pencil cases to pillows, is branded ‘The Future Is Ours’, a nod towards the academy. There is not much individual player merchandise, but you can buy a Parrott postcard for 40 cent or a copy of last season’s review with him on the cover.
According to staff working here, though – Joel and Kiki – the big seller, by far, is the AZ jersey with Parrott on the back. And since the striker’s hat-trick for Ireland in Budapest, Joel says, there has been a geographic surge in orders.
[ How a move to Dutch football revived Troy Parrott’s careerOpens in new window ]
“Normally we get three or four orders from Ireland,” he says, “but since the match last week we are getting 50 to 60 a day – just from Ireland. He’s a striker, so shirts with Parrott on the back, with all the goals he’s been scoring here, he was the most popular shirt anyway. But now it’s growing.”
The Dutch development of Parrott is undisputed. He has been at AZ since July, 2024, following that permanent transfer. He was 22 and had been at Spurs since he was 17, but a first-team breakthrough at the Premier League club was increasingly unlikely. The Netherlands has been good for him and he is good for it. He suits it more than Preston.
Hat-tricks became his thing here; he got two in Excelsior’s relegation playoff. Sunday’s goal against Heerenveen was his 14th of the club season, despite missing a chunk through injury.
His AZ head coach, Maarten Martens, was none too pleased on Sunday, but he has witnessed Parrott’s rising presence. “Physically, he has become more of an athlete, stronger, he can deliver more in the press,” said Martens.
“He’s a smart player, a team player and technically he’s on a high level. He’s stable mentally. The fitter and stronger he gets, the higher he will play. He can play in other positions because he’s smart, he can play as a second striker or from the wing, but his best position is number nine because he’s a clean finisher. And he scores goals in different ways.”
Maartens said he had seen “no strange behaviour” from Parrott as he dealt with the global noise this week. The way the striker took his goal on Sunday confirmed that impression.
But then, Maartens was not with his man in Budapest as he tried to get the match ball on the plane to Amsterdam.
“I had to deflate it to get it on the plane,” Parrott says with a chuckle. “I couldn’t take it on unless I did that.”
An image flashed by of Parrott letting the air out of a football at check-in, but he quickly corrected that. “I got someone to do it at the hotel for me.”
It’s safe with Parrott now. And he knows afresh from this experience that sometimes after you’re pumped up, comes deflation. But there is always another game and for him, that game is Shelbourne.
