{"id":399846,"date":"2026-04-15T14:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T14:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/399846\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T14:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T14:21:11","slug":"troy-parrott-overtakes-rory-mcilroy-as-irelands-favourite-sportsman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/399846\/","title":{"rendered":"Troy Parrott overtakes Rory McIlroy as Ireland’s favourite sportsman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katie Taylor remains Ireland’s most famous sportsperson overall.\"Ireland's<\/p>\n

Ireland’s Troy Parrott(Image: Mandatory Credit \u00a9INPHO\/James Crombie)<\/p>\n

Ireland striker Troy Parrott has been named Ireland’s most popular sportsman ahead of Rory McIlroy.<\/p>\n

The International soccer star is a fan favourite with the green army, with his hat-trick against Hungary and brace over Cristiano Ronaldo’s<\/a> Portugal still fresh in the minds of fans.<\/p>\n

And while that World Cup campaign ultimately ended in heartbreak<\/a>, Parrott cemented his status as a big match player, scoring in normal time before burying his penalty in the doomed shootout.<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

Rory McIlroy (Image: Hector Vivas\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In a new study commissioned by Betway<\/a>, Parrott has been named the most popular male sports star in Ireland, with a popularity rating of 98.65%, putting him ahead of two-time Masters champion McIlroy, who has a popularity rating of 76.04%.<\/p>\n

Both of whom trail Katie Taylor, who was crowned Ireland’s most popular sports star, with a popularity rating of 99.26%.<\/p>\n

Soccer stars dominate the top-10 with Seamus Coleman<\/a>, Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher and Chiedoze Ogbene all mentioned, with David Clifford<\/a> the sole Gaelic footballer mentioned in the top-10.<\/p>\n

Katie McCabe<\/a> takes 10th spot, with athletics heroes Ciara Mageean and Rhasidat Adeleke both just outside the top-10, alongside boxing icon Kellie Harrington.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at this study, there is no doubt that Troy Parrott\u2019s heroics against Portugal and Hungary really struck a chord with the Irish public,” said a Betway <\/a>spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw the support the team received from fans for the World Cup play-off in Prague and we now have a situation where players like Troy Parrott, Caoimhin Kelleher and Chiedozie Ogbene occupy a place in the Irish cultural conversation which might have been occupied by rugby players over the last decade or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really says a lot about Katie Taylor that even in a twelve month period that saw such hype around the football team and a Masters triumph for Rory McIlroy, she still emerges as number one with an unwavering amount of love and support\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Ireland's<\/p>\n

Ireland’s most popular sportspeople.<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Katie Taylor remains Ireland’s most famous sportsperson overall. Ireland’s Troy Parrott(Image: Mandatory Credit \u00a9INPHO\/James Crombie) Ireland striker Troy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,1394,44452],"class_list":{"0":"post-399846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-rory-mcilroy","12":"tag-troy-parrott"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}