The 2 Exeter City players that could be the next Ollie Watkins after Euro 2024 heroics
When Ollie Watkins scored that goal in Dortmund to send England into the Euro 2024 final, the jubilation across England was a truly-wonderful thing to behold.
But in a small area of south-east Devon, the joy was doubled with pride at the local lad doing it on the biggest stage.
The humble kid from Newton Abbot had just scored a 90th-minute winner to make everyone believe football was, finally, coming home.
Of course, it wasn’t to be as Spain defeated Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions 2-1 in his final game in charge to extend the wait into a sixth decade.
But as the dust settles on the action in Germany, the pride in the best Exeter City academy graduate for a century remains.
Watkins first played for City’s kids in 2004, spending a decade at the Cliff Hill before graduating to the first team and making his debut in the final match of the 2013/14 season.
A fruitful loan at Weston-Super-Mare followed before he grew into the Grecians’ first team and earned a £1.8m move to Brentford in July 2017.
Three years later, Aston Villa came calling with a £28m offer rising to £33m with add-ons and the Grecians pocketed a further £4m from that deal with an extra £750,000 in performance-related bonuses due to a sell-on clause.
It was a game-changing sum for the Grecians and the revamped Cliff Hill training ground is largely thanks to Watkins’ progression.
Premier League players don’t grow on trees, and it takes a huge amount of work to take a kid who was initially rejected by the academy at nine-years-old into one well worthy of a Euros final appearance on the back of a 27-goal season.
The work never stops at Exeter City and the hunt is always on for the next Ollie Watkins, the next academy player to hit the big time.
So, are there any players in the current squad who could challenge Watkins’ success? You know what, there might just be. Step forward, Sonny Cox.
The 19-year-old striker is a different style of player to the skillful, pacy Watkins, but he’s got an eye for goal few possess at such a young age. A certified fox in the box.
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