Tottenham’s ‘next Harry Kane’ finally fulfilling potential as he lights up Spain after shunning Premier League return

TROY PARROTT is finally living up to his Harry Kane comparisons – if his match-winning finish in the Champions League is anything to go by. The former Spurs wonderkid blasted home a strike Kane would have been proud of to help Real Betis beat Lille 3-2 in Europe’s premier club competition on Tuesday night. Troy Parrott wheels away in celebration after scoring against Lille in the Champions League Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Parrott also scored the winner against Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid at the weekend Credit: EPA It came four days after Parrott fired a late winner to inflict Real Madrid’s first La Liga defeat of the season and get one over his old boss Jose Mourinho. Safe to say it has been some week for Parrott, who at 24 is threatening to develop into the centre-forward he was tipped to be in North London nearly a decade ago. Sign up for the Football newsletter Thank you! Spurs picked up the Dubliner from Belvedere in the Republic of Ireland capital in 2017 and it was not long before fans started calling for him to be given a chance in the first team. Being a striker with an eye for goal, comparisons to Kane quickly followed, with many feeling Parrott to be the best thing to come through the Spurs academy since the England star. Mauricio Pochettino awarded the youngster his debut in a memorable game – albeit not for good reasons for Spurs – as the Premier League giants lost on penalties to League Two Colchester in the Carabao Cup. It was the biggest upset of Poch’s career and seven weeks later he was sacked. In came Mourinho, who gave Parrott his Premier League debut as a late sub in a 5-0 win over Burnley in December 2019 – a game famous for Son Heung-min’s Puskas Award-winning wondergoal. Despite that stunning strike, it was Parrott whom Mourinho was photographed giving the matchball to at the final whistle, to mark his bow. Most read in Sport BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK But the Portuguese also took a tough love approach with Parrott, criticising the starlet’s attitude when he played for the Under-23s in a similar way to how he dealt with a young Scott McTominay at Manchester United. Explaining in March 2020 why Parrott was “not ready” for regular first-team football, Mourinho said: “Every time he was playing with the kids, he was playing with the mentality of, ‘I shouldn’t be here’ or, ‘I am too good to be here.’ “I had exactly the same words with Scott McTominay. He was not loved in his age group because he was not there with the right frame of mind. The moment we started changing that lots of things started changing for him. “Troy cannot go there [the under‑age teams] with discontent, contempt. It is a process.” When Parrott missed a penalty in an FA Cup shootout defeat to Norwich that month, Mourinho excused the spot-kick but not the forward’s extra-time cameo. The Special One added: “Now people can see that he has to work a lot, so don’t think that Parrott is the second Harry Kane because he’s just a young kid that needs to work.” Like Kane did as a youngster, Parrott then underwent a series of lower-league loans to Millwall, Ipswich, MK Dons and Preston. But it was when he was farmed out to the Netherlands that his career began to kick on. A temporary and prolific spell with Excelsior led to a £6.7million switch to AZ Alkmaar, where Parrott smashed in 51 goals in 97 games. Jose Mourinho gifts Troy Parrott the match ball after his Prem debut Credit: PA Little did Jose know Parrott would later come back to haunt him years later Credit: AFP Parrott had once been considered the heir to Harry Kane’s Tottenham throne Credit: Getty The Irishman is lighting things up for both club and country Credit: Sportsfile He gave Spurs a rough time when facing his old side on their way to the Europa League title two seasons ago. The day before giving Ange Postecoglou’s side the runaround, Parrot was asked about his Spurs exit and said: “I definitely have no regrets. For me it just didn’t happen. I’m OK with that. “I was ready to move on and I think the club were also ready to move on. I thought it was the perfect time to do so. “I look back (at my time with Spurs) with a smile. It’s a place where I grew up.” There was talk of a return to England this summer but SunSport understands Parrott was never that keen on coming back as he enjoys playing in Europe and away from the intense spotlight of the Premier League. Instead, his continental adventure continued as he was sold for £17.7m to Betis, a club boasting nine ex-Prem players including Hector Bellerin, Giovani Lo Celso and Antony and bossed by ex-Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini. Then Parrott came to the world’s attention by firing home on the rebound to see off Mourinho’s Real 1-0 on Friday night. His post-match interview had the hallmarks of Irish legend Roy Keane’s famous “That’s his job” comment as he said: “That’s a striker’s job, to go in after the ball and hope it will fall in front of me.” But it was Parrott’s winner over Lille that showed his Kane-like lethal finishing, racing away from a defender via step-over before a belting, left-footed finish into the far corner. It had Joe Cole waxing lyrical on punditry, with the former England star branding Parrott’s goal “almost Harry Kane like” and predicting that the “big guns will be circling” around the forward soon enough. Parrott admitted in 2022 to stealing technique tips from Kane when the pair were at Spurs together, commenting: “Obviously, I want to be my own player. “But Kane is so good in terms of his finishing, his passing – why wouldn’t I try and take little bits from there?” Over the course of a mouthwatering week in January, Parrott will get the chance to see how far he has come when he takes on Kane’s Bayern Munich in the Champions League, just days after playing Arsenal and a Mourinho re-match at the Bernabeu. Comment now