Troy Parrott is reaping the rewards of spending time with Robbie Keane – and admitted that he is constantly learning off the former Tottenham and Republic or Ireland striker.
The 17-year-old earned him first call-up to the Ireland senior squad last week after impressing for the U21s earlier this season and will make his debut for the first-team in their friendly against New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium on Thursday.
Keane, who is currently Ireland’s assistant manager, enjoyed a glistering career at international level himself, scoring 68 goals in 146 matches and still stands alone as the countries all-time top goalscorer. And Parrott is an admirer of the ex-frontman.
“He was a top, top player,” Parrott told FAI TV. “So it’s good to have people like that in and around – and obviously we play in the same position – that I can learn from and take advice from and just listen in and try to tap into his knowledge.”
Parrott has an excellent goalscoring record at all ages for both club and country and has already reached double figures this season – which includes an impressive four-goal haul for Tottenham’s Under-19s against Red Star Belgrade in the UEFA Youth League last month.
“I’m not planning on stopping now,” he said. “For me, it’s about scoring goals. That’s all I want to do, to be honest. It stands out when people look at it and say, ‘he scored another goal’ or ‘he scored and got an assist’.
“If someone can score, then I think it helps to go up the levels quicker and then obviously when I went to the 21s, I scored for them again on my debut, so it was good.”
The world of difference between Parrot and Marcus Edwards at same age. Parrot is all football, Edwards was all contract and image.
No contest . Got to love the kid…go get em Troy