Spurs’ Irish teen sensation Troy Parrott scores stunner in UEFA Youth League

The big non-Champions-League-related news today was the retirement of Irish international Robbie Keane, the former Tottenham Hotspur striker who ended his Spurs career 11th on Tottenham’s all-time scorers’ chart. Since Keano left the club for LA Galaxy, Spurs haven’t had an Irish player with anything close to his skill on the ball.

But maybe we will soon? We’ve been bigging up Troy Parrott on this website lately, and for good reason — the 16-year old Irish striker signed for Spurs last season and has been tearing up the youth leagues. This kid has 9 goals and 5 assists in just over 1100 minutes in all competitions, and that includes 5 Premier League 2 caps with the U23s.

Did I mention he’s 16? In Ireland, he’s already being talked about as the best young striker since... well, Robbie Keane.

And he scored a belter today in the UEFA Youth League against Inter Milan. Check it out!

Youth development is a nebulous, messy thing, and just because a kid is a world-beater at 16 doesn’t mean he’ll turn out to be a world-beating full professional. Just ask Marcus Edwards (though the jury’s obviously still out on Mini Messi). But holy smokes, this Parrott kid sure looks like has the tools to be a pretty special talent.

Spurs lost the UEFA Youth League match 4-2 to Inter today, their first loss in the competition. With goals like that, I’m hardly bothered. Party on, Troy!