A CALL TO Caoimhín Kelleher helped seal the €20 million deal for Troy Parrott to join Real Betis from AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.
It was the Brentford goalkeeper’s former Liverpool teammate Adrian who picked up the phone to sound him out about his fellow Republic of Ireland international.
The reference received – as both a player and person – was glowing. The feedback only served to reinforce the La Liga club’s determination to make the transfer happen once they saw their opportunity to strike over the weekend.
Parrott is understood to have been one of five names on a list of potential strikers for Betis. Three of those believed to have been under consideration were Fabio Silva at Borussia Dortmund, Nottingham Forest’s Arnaud Kalimuendo, who spent last season on loan with Eintracht Frankfurt, and Santiago Giménez of AC Milan who is now destined for Porto.
For various reasons, which The 42 will lay out, it was only since last weekend that Betis properly showed their hand and came in hard to make Parrott their marquee signing heading into a campaign which will see them play Champions League football for the first time in over 20 years.
Kelleher’s call with Adrian was only part of the reason Parrott jumped to the top of the list. The Betis goalkeeper retired from playing in May and had already begun the process of finding a new role on the club’s sporting management team, led by the highly respected Manu Fajardo.
Along with head coach Manuel Pellegrini, who has delivered European football in each of his six seasons at the club, they have helped turn Betis into one of the most stable clubs in Spain.
They are also in the process of redeveloping their Benito Villamarín stadium – due to be completed in October 2027 – and estimate that revenue will increase from €30 million per year to up to €80 million.
Parrott and his family were guests of club president Ángel Haro García at the Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla on Friday as 59,490 turned up to watch their side beat Real Sociedad 1-0 in their opening game of this La Liga campaign. Last season their average attendance was 57,427.
Betis-Sevilla is regarded as the most intense cross city rivalry in Spain; one local source referenced it on a par with Celtic-Rangers, while the welcome from fans which took Parrott aback when he landed in Andalusia this week is something he will have to get used to.
Advertisement
Their travelling support bucks the trend in Spain with vast numbers in the away ends and Betis are also hugely popular among those in Catalunya as a result of migration in the 1950s and 60s.
Betis is a club that has got its act together and after losing to Chelsea in the 2025 Uefa Conference League final they have designs on making a mark in Europe.
Yet, this was a transfer that so nearly slipped through the cracks. Had West Ham United acted with the same level of decisiveness that Betis showed last weekend, then Parrott would have ended up heading back to London and playing in the Championship this season.
Those closest to the Dubliner expected him to complete a move to the Hammers last Friday. They were in pole position and the only club seriously at the table for talks with AZ Alkmaar. The Dutch club wanted €18 million up front with €4m more in add-ons, but West Ham weren’t budging on €15.5m.
Betis were still in the background and when they learned of West Ham’s hesitation became more confident. Talks were beginning between Parrott’s camp (they were already aware of interest stretching back to earlier in the year) as the West Ham deal stalled.
It was still expected that things would be sorted out with the English side and a fee eventually agreed. However, AZ were never satisfied with the offer.
There was some annoyance with AZ among the Parrott camp that the move was effectively off by last weekend as West Ham turned their focus to bringing in Joel Piroe on loan from Leeds United.
And that is when Betis made their move, coming in hard on Monday with a deal that AZ couldn’t say no to as well as an all-round package that excited Parrott. Champions League football was the clincher.
It provided him with the belief that he could continue his impressive rise at one of the biggest clubs in Spain, one which is currently enjoying the kind of revival a generation of supporters have longed for.
Parrott will now be the fore in Betis’ attempts to establish themselves at the very top of that tier of clubs just below Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid. He has a contract until 2031, but there is a realisation that they remain a selling club and if the player’s trajectory continues on the same path then he will be ready to take the next step.
Betis believe they have a player who will eventually move on to one of Europe’s elite clubs. The player shares the same aspiration, and there are executives at the top level in the Premier League who have already taken note of Parrott’s move and will be keeping an even closer eye on his progress.
Among those challenging for Champions League qualification in the Premier League, they feel Betis is on a par with the top eight in England, even if they cannot offer near the same wages as the richest league in the world.
A move to England’s top flight could have been on the agenda this summer, but a strategic decision was made early to cut off any interest from the three promoted teams.
The aim was to find a club where he had the potential to thrive and continue to score goals (51 in 97 matches for AZ) and even a move to West Ham, who are expected to bounce straight back from the Championship, was viewed as preferential to joining Coventry City, Ipswich Town or Hull City in a relegation fight.
The 42 can also reveal that before Betis finalised their deal this week, there was a late approach from Galatasaray. The Turkish giants coming in for Parrott was a flattering turn of events, but Spain was viewed as his preferred destination.
As detailed by The 42 last year, it was one of the leagues Parrott’s camp identified as best suited to helping him develop. Betis believe the Dubliner has already shown he is capable of adapting to life in a country where English is not the first language and can thrive in an environment outside of England.
Parrott has remained patient throughout the process as he didn’t expect his transfer from AZ to materialise before the World Cup, and it was only over the last two weeks that serious talks were taking place.
There was also an appreciation that Betis had to ensure they could meet the Squad Cost Limit (SCL) obligations with La Liga that would allow the move to be sanctioned by the governing body.
It has now been signed and sealed, so Parrott will soon have to deliver. After scoring that famous hat-trick for Ireland against Hungary, he and his family celebrated in Budapest with a KFC. On Thursday night, it was a little different as club officials continued to roll the red carpet out by bringing the player and his family for a meal in the city after ensuring his mother, Jennifer, and those closest to him were flown in from Dublin.
Parrott arrived by private jet after saying his goodbyes to teammates in Alkmaar and beamed that he was “very, very happy” to join his new club.
The visit of Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid on 4 September is already a tantalising prospect. He is the manager who gave Parrott a Premier League debut with Tottenham Hotspur seven years ago.
His career has taken a different path to the one he might have envisaged when he stepped on the pitch in December 2019 and Betis now offers the next enticing chapter after acting swiftly this week to finally get their man.
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.
Inside Troy Parrott's Real Betis deal: Caoimhín Kelleher reference, West Ham delay and Galatasaray interest
A CALL TO Caoimhín Kelleher helped seal the €20 million deal for Troy Parrott to join Real Betis from AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.
It was the Brentford goalkeeper’s former Liverpool teammate Adrian who picked up the phone to sound him out about his fellow Republic of Ireland international.
The reference received – as both a player and person – was glowing. The feedback only served to reinforce the La Liga club’s determination to make the transfer happen once they saw their opportunity to strike over the weekend.
Parrott is understood to have been one of five names on a list of potential strikers for Betis. Three of those believed to have been under consideration were Fabio Silva at Borussia Dortmund, Nottingham Forest’s Arnaud Kalimuendo, who spent last season on loan with Eintracht Frankfurt, and Santiago Giménez of AC Milan who is now destined for Porto.
For various reasons, which The 42 will lay out, it was only since last weekend that Betis properly showed their hand and came in hard to make Parrott their marquee signing heading into a campaign which will see them play Champions League football for the first time in over 20 years.
Kelleher’s call with Adrian was only part of the reason Parrott jumped to the top of the list. The Betis goalkeeper retired from playing in May and had already begun the process of finding a new role on the club’s sporting management team, led by the highly respected Manu Fajardo.
Along with head coach Manuel Pellegrini, who has delivered European football in each of his six seasons at the club, they have helped turn Betis into one of the most stable clubs in Spain.
They are also in the process of redeveloping their Benito Villamarín stadium – due to be completed in October 2027 – and estimate that revenue will increase from €30 million per year to up to €80 million.
Parrott and his family were guests of club president Ángel Haro García at the Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla on Friday as 59,490 turned up to watch their side beat Real Sociedad 1-0 in their opening game of this La Liga campaign. Last season their average attendance was 57,427.
Betis-Sevilla is regarded as the most intense cross city rivalry in Spain; one local source referenced it on a par with Celtic-Rangers, while the welcome from fans which took Parrott aback when he landed in Andalusia this week is something he will have to get used to.
Their travelling support bucks the trend in Spain with vast numbers in the away ends and Betis are also hugely popular among those in Catalunya as a result of migration in the 1950s and 60s.
Betis is a club that has got its act together and after losing to Chelsea in the 2025 Uefa Conference League final they have designs on making a mark in Europe.
Yet, this was a transfer that so nearly slipped through the cracks. Had West Ham United acted with the same level of decisiveness that Betis showed last weekend, then Parrott would have ended up heading back to London and playing in the Championship this season.
Those closest to the Dubliner expected him to complete a move to the Hammers last Friday. They were in pole position and the only club seriously at the table for talks with AZ Alkmaar. The Dutch club wanted €18 million up front with €4m more in add-ons, but West Ham weren’t budging on €15.5m.
Betis were still in the background and when they learned of West Ham’s hesitation became more confident. Talks were beginning between Parrott’s camp (they were already aware of interest stretching back to earlier in the year) as the West Ham deal stalled.
It was still expected that things would be sorted out with the English side and a fee eventually agreed. However, AZ were never satisfied with the offer.
There was some annoyance with AZ among the Parrott camp that the move was effectively off by last weekend as West Ham turned their focus to bringing in Joel Piroe on loan from Leeds United.
And that is when Betis made their move, coming in hard on Monday with a deal that AZ couldn’t say no to as well as an all-round package that excited Parrott. Champions League football was the clincher.
It provided him with the belief that he could continue his impressive rise at one of the biggest clubs in Spain, one which is currently enjoying the kind of revival a generation of supporters have longed for.
Parrott will now be the fore in Betis’ attempts to establish themselves at the very top of that tier of clubs just below Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético Madrid. He has a contract until 2031, but there is a realisation that they remain a selling club and if the player’s trajectory continues on the same path then he will be ready to take the next step.
Betis believe they have a player who will eventually move on to one of Europe’s elite clubs. The player shares the same aspiration, and there are executives at the top level in the Premier League who have already taken note of Parrott’s move and will be keeping an even closer eye on his progress.
Among those challenging for Champions League qualification in the Premier League, they feel Betis is on a par with the top eight in England, even if they cannot offer near the same wages as the richest league in the world.
A move to England’s top flight could have been on the agenda this summer, but a strategic decision was made early to cut off any interest from the three promoted teams.
The aim was to find a club where he had the potential to thrive and continue to score goals (51 in 97 matches for AZ) and even a move to West Ham, who are expected to bounce straight back from the Championship, was viewed as preferential to joining Coventry City, Ipswich Town or Hull City in a relegation fight.
The 42 can also reveal that before Betis finalised their deal this week, there was a late approach from Galatasaray. The Turkish giants coming in for Parrott was a flattering turn of events, but Spain was viewed as his preferred destination.
As detailed by The 42 last year, it was one of the leagues Parrott’s camp identified as best suited to helping him develop. Betis believe the Dubliner has already shown he is capable of adapting to life in a country where English is not the first language and can thrive in an environment outside of England.
Parrott has remained patient throughout the process as he didn’t expect his transfer from AZ to materialise before the World Cup, and it was only over the last two weeks that serious talks were taking place.
There was also an appreciation that Betis had to ensure they could meet the Squad Cost Limit (SCL) obligations with La Liga that would allow the move to be sanctioned by the governing body.
It has now been signed and sealed, so Parrott will soon have to deliver. After scoring that famous hat-trick for Ireland against Hungary, he and his family celebrated in Budapest with a KFC. On Thursday night, it was a little different as club officials continued to roll the red carpet out by bringing the player and his family for a meal in the city after ensuring his mother, Jennifer, and those closest to him were flown in from Dublin.
Parrott arrived by private jet after saying his goodbyes to teammates in Alkmaar and beamed that he was “very, very happy” to join his new club.
The visit of Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid on 4 September is already a tantalising prospect. He is the manager who gave Parrott a Premier League debut with Tottenham Hotspur seven years ago.
His career has taken a different path to the one he might have envisaged when he stepped on the pitch in December 2019 and Betis now offers the next enticing chapter after acting swiftly this week to finally get their man.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Exclusive How it happened in detail real betis Soccer Troy Parrott