There is still a mural of Ollie Watkins outside St James Park, paying homage to a celebration while still in the red white of Exeter City. One arm in the air, tearing away from goal.
That moment, in fact everything else in his career, has been eclipsed by the moment of his life.
“He always looked like he was going to be a good player,” Exeter’s club president Julian Tagg tells i, before a matter-of-fact admission: “Nobody saw him scoring the winning goal for England in the semi-final of the European Championship.”
Perhaps that isn’t strictly true, given that Watkins himself had experienced a tongue-in-cheek premonition. Before Gareth Southgate had thrown him on, the Aston Villa striker turned to fellow substitute Cole Palmer and vowed he was going to win it, and that the 22-year-old was going to provide the assist.
Nine years on from a loan spell at Weston-super-Mare – who, by coincidence play Exeter in a friendly on Saturday night, the eve of the final – Watkins conceded he “didn’t dream about” a goal of such magnitude while playing in non-league.
He now has four for England – three of them were in friendlies and the other in a World Cup qualifier against San Marino, who are 210th in the Fifa rankings. “You can dream, but I am a realist,” he said. “[Back then] I was just focused on getting back into the first team at Exeter.”
Southgate has largely preferred Ivan Toney as a back-up to Harry Kane and Watkins has played just 29 minutes of football in Germany. Fortunately, he is no stranger to having to prove himself.
“At nine, he wasn’t selected [for Exeter’s academy]” Tagg says. “At 11, he came back and had another trial and he was selected. He was a wide player, but he always moved well – you could see that sort of racehorse, open gait, he moved very well, freely and he was quick.
“But he was always a winger. Eventually he moved inside, and after a pre-season game when he was getting frustrated, [his then manager] Paul [Tisdale] just said to him, ‘Look, go get the ball and do what you want with it’, and gave him a free role. And that was really the making of him, he took off after that, so a good bit of management.”
There are obvious parallels in the trajectories of both Toney and Watkins – the two men vying for a fleeting opportunity below Kane in the pecking order. Both have starred at Brentford and between them they have 463 appearances in the English Football League, a reminder of the debt the national team owes to the lower rungs of the pyramid.
Exeter, in particular, have form when it comes to producing talent.
Former midfielder Matt Grimes is now Swansea captain, Fulham’s Jay Stansfield benefited from a spell on the loan stint in Devon – and had Wales not lost their play-off on penalties, Ethan Ampadu would have been a fellow Grecian alumnus at this Euros.
A moment you are going to see again and again and again.
— England (@England) July 10, 2024
Ollie Watkins, you absolute HERO!pic.twitter.com/pkdvUz00LC
Ahead of England’s semi-final, supporters at the fan-owned League One club gathered to watch on two giant screens at the stadium – and as Watkins delivered his last-ditch effort right into the corner, Tagg says: “It kicked off.
“Travelling to the ground I’m sure I’m not the only person that thought ‘it’d be great if Ollie comes on in the last 10 minutes and scores the winner!’ That’s not an original thought, I’m sure I’m one of many. And then of course, when it happens, you can’t quite believe it.
“They’re singing ‘he’s one of our own’ and ‘football’s coming home’. It was an experience and it was great.”
Watkins, born in neighbouring Torquay, is remembered as much for his “humility” as for his football. One night, when he was named Exeter’s Young Player of the Year, he approached the board to ask if he could bring a plus-one to the event.
“I thought he was bringing his girlfriend, or one of his mates,” Tagg recalls. “He brought his mum. That’s his nature – that’s not changed, and nor will it ever.
“His personality is very well known as a very grounded, sensible, plain nice individual. Everybody at the club was delighted for the country, etc. but particularly because it reflected on Exeter City and Ollie. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.”
Watkins’ ascendancy from semi-pro to European Championship finalist in under a decade has also taken in a best ever Premier League season at Aston Villa, where he scored 19 goals on their way to fourth place and Champions League qualification.
Once, that looked unlikely. First signed by Dean Smith – for the second time in his career – Watkins’ time in the Midlands hit a nadir under Steven Gerrard.
There were understood to be tensions between the pair and after a run of one goal in seven games, calls came for Watkins to be dropped amid reports the club were keen to sign what they considered an “upgrade”.
Gerrard made sure to bury the hatchet on Wednesday night, commenting with a heart and a flame under his former charge’s Instagram post.
Like so many of his domestic teammates, Watkins has been a beneficiary of an extraordinary Unai Emery reign that has produced an unselfish, well-rounded forward.
No player in the top flight produced more assists than him last season (13) – the irony being that he was followed in a close second by Palmer, the man he combined with for his historic strike against the Dutch. That, Watkins insisted, was a rare juncture where he could be “greedy”.
“If he scored no goals and Aston Villa were top of the league, he’d be very happy with that,” Tagg adds. “I’ve been involved in teams here for 20 years and when the centre-forward gets it, everybody else may as well sit down, because he’s going to shoot at some point.
“Ollie is not like that at all. If he sees there’s a better option, that’s what he’ll do. He doesn’t have that ego that says ‘it’s all about me’. It’s about the team for him.”
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