Inside Ollie Watkins’ incredible rise from non league football to England super-sub who roared Three Lions to Berlin
SCREAMING with ecstasy, super sub Ollie Watkins said the world felt like it was in “slow motion” as he celebrated shooting England to the Euro final.
Thrown into the Dortmund bear pit in the 81st minute, Ollie etched his name into English sporting history by firing the Three Lions to their first final on foreign soil.
Later in the stands the “quiet” lad brought up in a sleepy Devon market town, and who used to play for non-league Weston-super-Mare AFC, was greeted with a kiss by his partner Ellie Alderson before hugging his mum Delsi-May.
Interior designer Ellie, mother of Ollie’s children Amara, two, and one-year-old Marley, later said online: “You got your moment and you took it. I’m so proud of you.”
Many fans had been clamouring for the Aston Villa striker to get more game time as England progressed through the tournament.
Not least of those was his mum Delsi-May, a soul and Motown singer also known by her stage name Ruby Washington.
Before the game against the Netherlands, Delsi-May said in a moment captured on TikTok that she hoped “they finally let my son come on the f***ing pitch”.
Unlike many of his peers, Ollie, 28, wasn’t cosseted as a young player by one of the great clubs of the Premier League.
Rewind nine years to the footballing backwater of Basingstoke, in Hampshire.
It was a blustery March day at the Ark Cancer Charity Stadium for a National League South clash between Basingtoke and Weston-super-Mare AFC in the sixth tier of English football.
With the teams locked at 1-1 as the game drifted towards full-time, the visitors asked their teenage striker to warm up.
In the 80th minute, on jogged Ollie Watkins — on loan from Exeter City.
But there would be no last minute heroics.
Instead, it was Basingstoke who scored a 90th minute winner.
Ollie’s familiarity with the tough tackles and mud bath pitches of non-league football may help explain why he has managed to remain humble and grounded.
Mum Delsi-May said: “Oliver is a man of very few words.
“We’ve got a family group chat, and he never brags or anything, we literally have to draw everything out of him.
“He’s so humble and I love that about him.
“He’s quite nonchalant about the fact that he’s doing something he loves.
“He assumes it’s the norm, but it’s not.
“I’m immensely proud.”
A mark of Ollie’s warm and generous character is his friendship with Woody Stokes.
Woody, who has Down’s syndrome and autism, had waited more than 90 minutes for Ollie to sign an autograph when he was playing for Brentford.
Since then Ollie has welcomed the 11-year-old into his box at Villa Park and during lockdown drove to his home to deliver Easter eggs.
Ollie said: “It’s more than just him being a fan.
“We’ve got a close little friendship.
“He is involved with a charity called Skylarks, so I support them too.”
It speaks of a man who, despite the riches of the Premier league, has remained true to his upbringing.
Born in December 1995 in Torquay, Devon, dad Steven and mum Delsi-May split when Ollie was a child.
He was raised in the small market town of Newton Abbot, on the fringes of Dartmoor.
Bringing up Ollie, his brothers Richie, Dale and Jordan, and sister Charlotte alone, Delsi-May often took the children to her shows.
Ollie said: “I got taken along to her gigs with my brother when I was younger.
“She also used to work on cruise ships and that’s when she was away.
“My singing? I probably let the family down with that but one thing I got from mum, I think, was a very good music taste.
“My grandad listened to Frank Sinatra, mum listened to Whitney Houston, the blues, soul, and I like that stuff.”
Ollie had been rejected for a place at Exeter City’s academy aged nine but a year later he made the grade.
It meant Delsi-May having to juggle her work with a 40-mile round trip to his football training.
She said: “I had to bomb it over to school, bring them back, get them something to eat, get them in the car, bomb it over to Exeter during rush hour.
“Then I had to make sure I got back in time for me to get to work.”
Ollie’s close friend Matt Jay, a fellow pupil at South Dartmoor Community College and Exeter City’s academy, recalls his old team-mate failing to initially make the grade.
Midfielder Matt, now at League Two Colchester United, said: “I joined Exeter at under-nines.
“I think the story is that Ollie didn’t make it that year, but came back the next.
“You could tell he had something, but people develop at different rates.
“Exeter’s academy was all about technical ability.
“I’m not saying that Ollie wasn’t blessed with that, but he wasn’t the best player there, for sure.
“He was very fast but he was a late developer.”
Ollie eventually did progress through the ranks for Exeter, winning a professional contract, and making his league debut against Hartlepool United in 2014.
But he was far from the finished article.
When Ollie and Matt were 18 they were sent on loan to non-league Weston-super-Mare AFC on the Somerset coast.
Matt, 28, said: “It was difficult.
“It was our first loan.
“We probably thought it was going to be a bit easier than it was.
“We used to travel up Tuesday and Thursday evenings for training, get back way past midnight.
“But that was all part of the learning experience.
“And I think that helped Ollie a lot to realise that you weren’t going to just walk into a first team.
“You see Marcus Rashford or Phil Foden coming through so young at great clubs, and we all think we’re going to do that. But the reality is, it’s not that easy.
“There are times where you wonder if you’re going to make it.
“A lot of it is about timing.”
Back at Exeter, Ollie broke into the first team and began banging in the goals.
In 2017 Brentford, then in the Championship, signed him for £1.8million.
After 45 goals in 132 appearances he was bought by Aston Villa for a £33million fee.
This season he has scored 19 Premier League goals, helping Villa qualify for the Champions League.
And in March 2021, England came calling.
Delsi-May was cleaning her car when Ollie broke the news.
She said: “I’m glad he did when I was in the car, because I let out the biggest scream.
“If I’d have let that out in the street people would have said, ‘Find that woman a mental hospital!’
“I still can’t believe it. I’m immensely proud.”
Ollie scored with his first shot on target on his England debut in a 5-0 win over San Marino at Wembley.
He told the High Performance podcast just how much it means to him to represent his country.
He said: “It’s one of the best feelings and one that I relish.
“I love it when I go out there.
“I’m standing there and singing the national anthem and I’ve got goosebumps.
“Representing your country is one of the biggest honours, especially where the squad is at the moment..
“I feel like I can do more, I’ve got a lot to bring to the table.
“That’s my aim — to achieve something great with them.”
For this unassuming lad from Newton Abbot that golden opportunity may come in Berlin on Sunday.
