The 2 Exeter City players that could be the next Ollie Watkins after Euro 2024 heroics
- Sonny Cox could be the next Ollie Watkins with his goalscoring potential and promising development at Exeter City.
- Jake Richards, only 16, has already made an impact with his combative style, creativity, and potential for a bright future.
- Exeter City is banking on retaining talented youngsters like Richards by offering pro deals to secure their promising futures at the club.
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.
Ollie Watkins’ journey from non-league to Premier League
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.
Sonny Cox could be the next Ollie Watkins
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