Fantastic journeyman goes from Weston to West Berlin

Ollie Watkins was on loan in the Conference South 10 years before he blasted England into a major tournament final

- RICHARD JOLLY

Bobby Charlton, Harry Kane, Ollie Watkins. There is an incongruous presence on the rather short list of players who have scored a semi-final winner for the England football team. Charlton was England’s record goalscorer and Kane is now. Charlton was a knight of the realm and, if England win Euro 2024, Kane may become one in retirement, too.

Then there is Watkins; formerly of Weston-super-Mare, a footballer who was playing in the Conference South at the age Kobbie Mainoo was starring in a European Championships semi-final; who, at the age Jude Bellingham is now, was plying his trade in League Two for Exeter.

Watkins may be a perfect product of Gareth Southgate’s England. There are echoes of Kieran Trippier scoring in a World Cup semi-final in 2018, something only Charlton and Gary Lineker had previously done for the country. Southgate’s England have reversed a national trend of underachievement.

They have also given some unlikely lads a rare status. Watkins will go from Weston-super-Mare to West Berlin, to the Olympiastadion. Whatever happens – and there is no guarantee he will even get on the pitch – he will remain indelibly associated with Dortmund.

“I never thought I would be playing in the Euros for England,” he said, harking back the best part of a decade to his days on loan in non-league. “You can dream but I am a realist. I was just thinking to get into the team at Exeter.”