TROY PARROTT WAS eight years old when he first went to train with Belvedere FC — a decision that would transform his life and set the young kid on a path to stardom.
The player’s talent was obvious even then. Tall for his age, he was fast, technically good, skilful — all the attributes a footballer needs.
He would often play above his age group, learning vital skills such as shielding the ball against players who were older and more physically imposing
Soon, those following his progress started to believe he was the best player not just at Belvedere but the entire Dublin District Schoolboys League.
Along with Sean Brennan, a Belvedere player who was a year above him, Parrott went on numerous trials.
Brennan eventually signed an unusually lengthy contract with Southampton, though it didn’t work out, and like countless other Irish youngsters who try their luck abroad, he ended up back home.
Similarly, two other Belvedere teammates, Brandon Holt and Alex Dunne, who regularly appeared in Ireland’s underage squads with Parrott, saw their dreams of stardom dashed.
The one other exception was Josh Keeley, who is more than a year younger than Parrott, but sometimes played on the same schoolboy team.
Like Parrott, Keeley ended up moving to Tottenham, but had to go elsewhere to make a first-team breakthrough, and his form in League One with Luton Town has led to an Ireland call-up for the upcoming World Cup playoff qualifiers.
Standout players such as Keeley and Parrott would often play a game for their own age group on Saturday and then with the team a year above on Sundays, thereby exposing them to as much football as possible.
If Keeley gets capped, he will become the 17th Belvedere graduate to represent Ireland at senior level — others include Matt Doherty, Wes Hoolahan, Stephen Elliot, Keith Treacy and Curtis Fleming.
“There are so many kids coming through Belvedere from the north inner city,” says Tony Kavanagh, a coach at the club.
“It’s that street footballer thing they have. They come from an area that, in other people’s eyes, is probably not the greatest place to be brought up in. And I think there’s that determination in them that they want to do well. People think because of where they’re from, because of their address, there’s this perception about people from that area, but I think Belvedere have shown through 55 years that you may come from this area, but you can still have that determination and commitment.”
Aspiring footballers can also hone their skills by playing futsal in the local youth club.
Where he grew up, in general, was vital to shaping Parrott as a footballer.
Advertisement
“I grew up in the north inner city myself,” says Darren Berrigan, another coach at Belvedere. “So when you’re playing in the flats, there’s no such thing as well: ‘You’re 12, and he’s only 10, or you’re 12, and he’s 14.’ You’re picked on whatever side, and you fend for yourself, sort of thing.
“So Troy would have picked up a lot of stuff from Belvedere regarding that, from playing in the age up, but he would have picked a lot of stuff up from playing on the street and playing in the Belvedere youth club and all that type of stuff where there are no rules.”
Belvedere have produced 16 senior Irish internationals, including Wes Hoolahan. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Yet street footballers are a dying breed, as the areas in which they can play are rapidly vanishing amid a changing Dublin.
“I grew up in the Croke Villas flats,” says Berrigan, a former Shamrock Rovers player and ex-Ireland underage international.
“There were five blocks of flats there. Now they demolished the last block last month, but all we had was a five-a-side football pitch, and I had the Belvedere youth club.
“I’m 46 now, and I have three kids, all boys who play football. We live down in Sheriff Street Upper, but it’s all apartment complexes.
“They’re building top-of-the-range apartments now, with nothing for kids to play on.
“We used to go everywhere around the city, playing against other flat complexes. And the likes of Wes Hoolohan were the same.
“[Nowadays] from the 3Arena, down to the financial centre, there could be 30 blocks of apartments, and there’s not a football pitch in sight there that kids can just walk in off the street and play on.”
Kavanagh remembers a particular competition, the Galway Cup. Belvedere got beaten 1-0 by Leeds in the final, but Parrott was the clear standout player, and it is around that time that people beyond Dublin schoolboy circles began taking notice of the talented youngster.
“Vincent Butler would have been another really good mentor for Troy,” he recalls. “So Vincent would have got Troy up and down to all the training sessions and all the games for the DDSL and for Ireland as well. Jennifer, Troy’s mom, didn’t drive at the time. So Vincent would have got him back and forth as well as [other coaches].”
Butler’s faith in Parrott never wavered. Even during that difficult spell in his career, when he was struggling to make an impact amid a series of indifferent loan spells in England.
“Even we were going: ‘Jesus, it doesn’t seem to be working out for Troy, where he’s gone to Millwall or Ipswich,” says Kavanagh.
“I remember, right through the years, Vincent was always saying: ‘100%, he’s going to be a success.’ He said, ‘It’s just that those teams may not suit him.’
“And you go back to Harry Kane. Harry Kane would have been a really good mentor for Troy over there. And he still stays in close contact with Harry Kane, and Harry went on four different loans. And it didn’t really work out for Harry Kane, either. But everybody stuck with him; they knew he had it in him.
“So it was a bit like that with Troy, but Vincent had absolutely no doubts. And he said, once he gets into that right environment and gets his confidence going, he’s just going to kick on and take off, which he did.”
“Vincent is down at the [Belvedere] training every Monday, Wednesday, and he’s down on Saturday and Sunday [for matches],” adds Berrigan. “He’s 83 years of age, and he’s getting on a bit now, but still, he has an eye for football.
“Every loan move that [Troy] made, Vincent made time to go over and spend the weekend. He would book a hotel, go to a match and just let him know the club are still behind him no matter what.
“And to this day, Vincent will go over to Holland and spend time over there, going around academies. And he’d go to one of Troy’s matches and meet up with him after the game.”
Belvedere founding member Vincent Butler has been a key mentor to Parrott. Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO
Lorraine O'Sullivan / INPHO / INPHO
Butler was not the only vastly experienced individual who offered crucial support to Parrott in his younger days.
“I made a point in making the Irish boys, or anybody that came to the club, feel welcome,” says Tottenham and Northern Ireland legend Pat Jennings, who worked at Spurs’ academy when Parrott arrived there.
“I would make sure I had a good chat with them, because I knew how important that was to me when I arrived from Ireland at 17 at Watford.
“And I was lucky because I had a manager, Bill McGarry, who was absolutely brilliant to me, a really tough bloke. But he called me on a couple of occasions during my first year, when I was playing in the team, and presented me with a ticket for a flight to go and see the family.
“And it meant so much to me. So you think about how important [the support is] for players coming in, being away from home for the first time. And he was a lovely lad, Troy, a really good player.”
Jennings continues: “You could see how keen he was. He chased every ball and tackled. He was like a defender, tackling and wanted to head every ball that came into the box.
“I was hoping that one day he would have gone on and made it at Tottenham, but great players of the past have gone on and had good careers somewhere else.
“I made a point of saying to the young goalkeepers, whenever they arrived at the club, realistically, they weren’t going to play for Tottenham. But make sure every day in the training ground with us wasn’t wasted. You take that with you. And it’s the same with the outfield players.
“I’m just delighted to see that [Troy has] done so well. And the fact that he’s getting a good living and having a good career, that’s the important thing.”
Spurs legend Pat Jennings helped Parrott adapt to life at Tottenham. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Parrott’s little brother and nephew are in the Belvedere academy now, and the Ireland star will often visit the club himself when he’s back in Dublin, popping in for a cup of tea and urging the aspiring young players to never give up on their dreams.
The 24-year-old is happy to show such support after all Belvedere did for him.
“The club are really good at protecting players like that, who they know potentially may get into trouble,” says Kavanagh. “The club are really good like that with the families. They’ve always protected them and ushered them in the right direction.”
Related Reads
'At my worst, I couldn't stand up for longer than 10 minutes'
Seamus Coleman: the natural leader for a team who have learned to fight through the storm
From 'tearing across the M50' to the cusp of the World Cup - Dara O'Shea's dad reflects on son's journey
“The club did that for me,” adds Berrigan. “I would have been in the club since four years old. And growing up in the north inner city, the temptations are all around you. So that’s why I give so much back to the club now, the club has done what they’ve done for Troy, for me, 20 years before that.
“The club was founded for people in the north inner city that had these distractions in place for them, and they were always well known for looking out for not just kids with potential, but for all kids that they could steer, kids they thought were going down the wrong road at some stage in their lives.
“The club had a knack of seeing kids that tended to act the maggot, let’s say, and that had potential, it’d be a conscious decision to bring them into the older teams, where they’d be training three times a week now, and playing two games. So they focused on them, gave them a little bit of discipline.
“The club, over their 55 years, has saved more people and had more success with steering people the right way when they’re 16 and 17 that now have a house, three kids and a normal job that probably would have [otherwise] ended up in Mountjoy prison.”
Avoiding trouble was also part of the thinking behind sending Parrott to Tottenham at a relatively early age. He signed professional terms on his 17th birthday, but had been travelling back and forth to North London long before then.
“Spurs had been interested, Man City, Chelsea, they all wanted to sign him,” says Kavanagh.
“Transition years usually were wasteful years, back then, in school. The kids come and go, so we were afraid he might get into trouble if he had a lot of time to waste.
“We had spoken to Spurs, put it to Vincent, put it to [his school] O’Connell’s, about him doing his transition year over in Spurs. So they agreed. We got him over there for the year, which was brilliant for him.”
Parrott has enjoyed his best season yet, with 28 goals in 41 appearances for AZ Alkmaar and five in his last two appearances with Ireland. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
And just as Parrott’s environment in Dublin was crucial to his early success, where the AZ Alkmaar striker is located now is also a big reason behind his current progress.
“Jennifer will be down at the Academy with the boys on Saturday morning,” says Kavanagh. “He’s over there [in the Netherlands] with his girlfriend. She’s over there a lot of the time with him, and he’s just so content now, whereas I think maybe living in London and having a lot of distractions — maybe it is a good thing that he left.
“So we’d all love him to sign for another big club, Dortmund and AC Milan are being mooted. And I’d actually probably rather him stay on the continent than come back to the Premier League. Again, there are a lot of distractions, especially in London, and you see it with the likes of Dele Alli as well — players who are so good at one stage and then fade into the background.
“And I think it’s good for him, he’s happy where he is, and he’s just really after the kicking on, isn’t he?”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
‘Harry Kane would have been a good mentor for Troy… He still stays in close contact’
TROY PARROTT WAS eight years old when he first went to train with Belvedere FC — a decision that would transform his life and set the young kid on a path to stardom.
The player’s talent was obvious even then. Tall for his age, he was fast, technically good, skilful — all the attributes a footballer needs.
He would often play above his age group, learning vital skills such as shielding the ball against players who were older and more physically imposing
Soon, those following his progress started to believe he was the best player not just at Belvedere but the entire Dublin District Schoolboys League.
Along with Sean Brennan, a Belvedere player who was a year above him, Parrott went on numerous trials.
Brennan eventually signed an unusually lengthy contract with Southampton, though it didn’t work out, and like countless other Irish youngsters who try their luck abroad, he ended up back home.
Similarly, two other Belvedere teammates, Brandon Holt and Alex Dunne, who regularly appeared in Ireland’s underage squads with Parrott, saw their dreams of stardom dashed.
The one other exception was Josh Keeley, who is more than a year younger than Parrott, but sometimes played on the same schoolboy team.
Like Parrott, Keeley ended up moving to Tottenham, but had to go elsewhere to make a first-team breakthrough, and his form in League One with Luton Town has led to an Ireland call-up for the upcoming World Cup playoff qualifiers.
Standout players such as Keeley and Parrott would often play a game for their own age group on Saturday and then with the team a year above on Sundays, thereby exposing them to as much football as possible.
If Keeley gets capped, he will become the 17th Belvedere graduate to represent Ireland at senior level — others include Matt Doherty, Wes Hoolahan, Stephen Elliot, Keith Treacy and Curtis Fleming.
“There are so many kids coming through Belvedere from the north inner city,” says Tony Kavanagh, a coach at the club.
“It’s that street footballer thing they have. They come from an area that, in other people’s eyes, is probably not the greatest place to be brought up in. And I think there’s that determination in them that they want to do well. People think because of where they’re from, because of their address, there’s this perception about people from that area, but I think Belvedere have shown through 55 years that you may come from this area, but you can still have that determination and commitment.”
Aspiring footballers can also hone their skills by playing futsal in the local youth club.
Where he grew up, in general, was vital to shaping Parrott as a footballer.
“I grew up in the north inner city myself,” says Darren Berrigan, another coach at Belvedere. “So when you’re playing in the flats, there’s no such thing as well: ‘You’re 12, and he’s only 10, or you’re 12, and he’s 14.’ You’re picked on whatever side, and you fend for yourself, sort of thing.
“So Troy would have picked up a lot of stuff from Belvedere regarding that, from playing in the age up, but he would have picked a lot of stuff up from playing on the street and playing in the Belvedere youth club and all that type of stuff where there are no rules.”
Yet street footballers are a dying breed, as the areas in which they can play are rapidly vanishing amid a changing Dublin.
“I grew up in the Croke Villas flats,” says Berrigan, a former Shamrock Rovers player and ex-Ireland underage international.
“There were five blocks of flats there. Now they demolished the last block last month, but all we had was a five-a-side football pitch, and I had the Belvedere youth club.
“I’m 46 now, and I have three kids, all boys who play football. We live down in Sheriff Street Upper, but it’s all apartment complexes.
“They’re building top-of-the-range apartments now, with nothing for kids to play on.
“We used to go everywhere around the city, playing against other flat complexes. And the likes of Wes Hoolohan were the same.
“[Nowadays] from the 3Arena, down to the financial centre, there could be 30 blocks of apartments, and there’s not a football pitch in sight there that kids can just walk in off the street and play on.”
Kavanagh remembers a particular competition, the Galway Cup. Belvedere got beaten 1-0 by Leeds in the final, but Parrott was the clear standout player, and it is around that time that people beyond Dublin schoolboy circles began taking notice of the talented youngster.
“Vincent Butler would have been another really good mentor for Troy,” he recalls. “So Vincent would have got Troy up and down to all the training sessions and all the games for the DDSL and for Ireland as well. Jennifer, Troy’s mom, didn’t drive at the time. So Vincent would have got him back and forth as well as [other coaches].”
Butler’s faith in Parrott never wavered. Even during that difficult spell in his career, when he was struggling to make an impact amid a series of indifferent loan spells in England.
“Even we were going: ‘Jesus, it doesn’t seem to be working out for Troy, where he’s gone to Millwall or Ipswich,” says Kavanagh.
“I remember, right through the years, Vincent was always saying: ‘100%, he’s going to be a success.’ He said, ‘It’s just that those teams may not suit him.’
“And you go back to Harry Kane. Harry Kane would have been a really good mentor for Troy over there. And he still stays in close contact with Harry Kane, and Harry went on four different loans. And it didn’t really work out for Harry Kane, either. But everybody stuck with him; they knew he had it in him.
“So it was a bit like that with Troy, but Vincent had absolutely no doubts. And he said, once he gets into that right environment and gets his confidence going, he’s just going to kick on and take off, which he did.”
“Vincent is down at the [Belvedere] training every Monday, Wednesday, and he’s down on Saturday and Sunday [for matches],” adds Berrigan. “He’s 83 years of age, and he’s getting on a bit now, but still, he has an eye for football.
“Every loan move that [Troy] made, Vincent made time to go over and spend the weekend. He would book a hotel, go to a match and just let him know the club are still behind him no matter what.
“And to this day, Vincent will go over to Holland and spend time over there, going around academies. And he’d go to one of Troy’s matches and meet up with him after the game.”
Butler was not the only vastly experienced individual who offered crucial support to Parrott in his younger days.
“I made a point in making the Irish boys, or anybody that came to the club, feel welcome,” says Tottenham and Northern Ireland legend Pat Jennings, who worked at Spurs’ academy when Parrott arrived there.
“I would make sure I had a good chat with them, because I knew how important that was to me when I arrived from Ireland at 17 at Watford.
“And I was lucky because I had a manager, Bill McGarry, who was absolutely brilliant to me, a really tough bloke. But he called me on a couple of occasions during my first year, when I was playing in the team, and presented me with a ticket for a flight to go and see the family.
“And it meant so much to me. So you think about how important [the support is] for players coming in, being away from home for the first time. And he was a lovely lad, Troy, a really good player.”
Jennings continues: “You could see how keen he was. He chased every ball and tackled. He was like a defender, tackling and wanted to head every ball that came into the box.
“I was hoping that one day he would have gone on and made it at Tottenham, but great players of the past have gone on and had good careers somewhere else.
“I made a point of saying to the young goalkeepers, whenever they arrived at the club, realistically, they weren’t going to play for Tottenham. But make sure every day in the training ground with us wasn’t wasted. You take that with you. And it’s the same with the outfield players.
“I’m just delighted to see that [Troy has] done so well. And the fact that he’s getting a good living and having a good career, that’s the important thing.”
Parrott’s little brother and nephew are in the Belvedere academy now, and the Ireland star will often visit the club himself when he’s back in Dublin, popping in for a cup of tea and urging the aspiring young players to never give up on their dreams.
The 24-year-old is happy to show such support after all Belvedere did for him.
“The club are really good at protecting players like that, who they know potentially may get into trouble,” says Kavanagh. “The club are really good like that with the families. They’ve always protected them and ushered them in the right direction.”
“The club did that for me,” adds Berrigan. “I would have been in the club since four years old. And growing up in the north inner city, the temptations are all around you. So that’s why I give so much back to the club now, the club has done what they’ve done for Troy, for me, 20 years before that.
“The club was founded for people in the north inner city that had these distractions in place for them, and they were always well known for looking out for not just kids with potential, but for all kids that they could steer, kids they thought were going down the wrong road at some stage in their lives.
“The club had a knack of seeing kids that tended to act the maggot, let’s say, and that had potential, it’d be a conscious decision to bring them into the older teams, where they’d be training three times a week now, and playing two games. So they focused on them, gave them a little bit of discipline.
“The club, over their 55 years, has saved more people and had more success with steering people the right way when they’re 16 and 17 that now have a house, three kids and a normal job that probably would have [otherwise] ended up in Mountjoy prison.”
Avoiding trouble was also part of the thinking behind sending Parrott to Tottenham at a relatively early age. He signed professional terms on his 17th birthday, but had been travelling back and forth to North London long before then.
“Spurs had been interested, Man City, Chelsea, they all wanted to sign him,” says Kavanagh.
“Transition years usually were wasteful years, back then, in school. The kids come and go, so we were afraid he might get into trouble if he had a lot of time to waste.
“We had spoken to Spurs, put it to Vincent, put it to [his school] O’Connell’s, about him doing his transition year over in Spurs. So they agreed. We got him over there for the year, which was brilliant for him.”
And just as Parrott’s environment in Dublin was crucial to his early success, where the AZ Alkmaar striker is located now is also a big reason behind his current progress.
“Jennifer will be down at the Academy with the boys on Saturday morning,” says Kavanagh. “He’s over there [in the Netherlands] with his girlfriend. She’s over there a lot of the time with him, and he’s just so content now, whereas I think maybe living in London and having a lot of distractions — maybe it is a good thing that he left.
“So we’d all love him to sign for another big club, Dortmund and AC Milan are being mooted. And I’d actually probably rather him stay on the continent than come back to the Premier League. Again, there are a lot of distractions, especially in London, and you see it with the likes of Dele Alli as well — players who are so good at one stage and then fade into the background.
“And I think it’s good for him, he’s happy where he is, and he’s just really after the kicking on, isn’t he?”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Darren Berrigan Profile Soccer Czech Republic Ireland Republic TONY KAVANAGH Troy Parrott