Kelly Somers: Properly, Ollie, let’s return to the very starting. I need to know the place your love of soccer got here from and the primary time you possibly can bear in mind having a ball at your toes.
Ollie Watkins: Ah, it was a very long time in the past now!
Kelly: You have been so younger that you would be able to’t bear in mind…
Ollie: Yeah, I used to be so younger. My mum at all times used to say as quickly as I may stroll I used to be kicking bouncy balls and stuff round. Then every time I used to exit to play on the street, I might at all times come again with a soccer.
Kelly: What, you simply nicked one other child’s soccer?!
Ollie: I’d simply discover footballs round and I might have a group of various ones. I used to be enjoying with my brothers on the street and stuff like that. Someday my buddy got here round and he was going to soccer observe later, however I did not have a staff. He instructed me to return with him after which it began from there.
Kelly: So, that was your first staff. What are you able to bear in mind of your first session with them?
Ollie: It was simply totally different. I used to be used to enjoying soccer down on the park with my buddies. This can be a little bit extra… it was nonetheless enjoyable, however clearly you’ve gotten a little bit little bit of teaching and stuff like that. After which I discovered that I used to be fairly good at it, so simply stored going.
Kelly: At what level did you realise, ‘OK, I’ve possibly acquired one thing right here that the opposite youngsters have not acquired’?
Ollie: Properly, to be sincere, there was a participant that performed in my staff… his dad really ran the staff as properly… he was the perfect participant. And I at all times simply wished to form of get near him and simply be like him actually.
At that age, I do not assume you concentrate on it. You are simply enjoying soccer. It is possibly whenever you get into academies and stuff like that you then begin to consider doing it extra significantly and pondering of the extent you are at. However at the moment – I feel that is the enjoyable factor about whenever you’re younger – you simply exit and play. There isn’t any guidelines. You may run all over the place. I feel that is the enjoyable bit about soccer at that age.
Kelly: There’s been lots fabricated from your journey and it not being your typical route. It was Exeter that picked you up first, wasn’t it? However that wasn’t the best path right away was it, both?
Ollie: No, I went for a trial after I was 9. I did not get in after which they instructed me to return again in six weeks, however I could not focus. I used to be at all times trying round and stuff like that, so coming again six weeks later, I did not really feel like I used to be going to enhance. I wanted to return and, you realize, play with my buddies and simply take pleasure in it as a result of at that age it is rather severe.
Kelly: So, you did not return six weeks later? You determined to not?
Ollie: No, I went again two years later. I acquired within the academy after which, yeah, I used to be there till I left at 21 I feel.
Kelly: I do know it is a very long time in the past now, however at 9 years outdated that will need to have been your dream to play in your native staff. To be instructed, ‘no, sorry, this is not best for you in the meanwhile’ … are you able to bear in mind how that felt? Or have been you capable of simply go and luxuriate in soccer once more?
Ollie: They weren’t saying: ‘Oh no, you are not adequate.’ It was extra the truth that I could not focus. Properly, that is what they instructed me anyway. However I simply form of noticed it as… I simply went and performed extra soccer and simply loved it. And I feel I form of noticed it as a little bit little bit of a blessing. At that age, you simply need to exit and play, have that freedom to precise your self. So, that is what I went away and did. Once I then went into it, I used to be able to focus extra.
Kelly: And whenever you have been at Exeter as properly, you went on some mortgage spells. I do know Weston-super-Mare was fairly an enormous one, wasn’t it?
Ollie: Yeah, I really feel like that was essential in my growth. One among my finest buddies on the time, Matt Jay, he made his debut at 16 I feel. Clearly, I used to be very pleased for him. He was my finest buddy, however I used to be so envious since you need that to be you.
However me going out on mortgage undoubtedly helped me, as a result of I felt like I used to be then… I might skilled enjoying males’s soccer. I simply realized to battle for 3 factors. Folks had mortgages to pay and stuff like that and I did not perceive that as a result of I’d simply been enjoying reserve-team soccer and enjoying video games the place I may win 5-0 or lose 5-0, it did not matter. Going out and enjoying for 3 factors was an actual studying curve for me and it undoubtedly helped me. I realized lots that 12 months.
Kelly: You probably did, after all, make it at Exeter after which the remaining is historical past as a result of that is the place the remainder of your journey began. However has there been a turning level alongside the way in which, the place in the event you look again, you assume, ‘OK, all of this… I would not be an England worldwide scoring that purpose at Euro 2024, enjoying within the Champions League… none of this is able to have occurred with out it’?
Ollie: I feel there’s a component of luck. I bear in mind the day I acquired into the primary staff at Exeter. Ryan Harley – one of many essential midfielders – was sick that day. I ended up enjoying, scoring after which I stayed within the staff and did properly.
However after that, I feel simply working exhausting. And after I made the bounce to Brentford, I used to be a little bit bit stunned at how properly I took to it.
Kelly: Actually?
Ollie: Yeah, I feel as a result of whenever you’re youthful, you take a look at gamers that you simply need to play in opposition to… you search them on YouTube after which the subsequent factor you realize, soccer adjustments so shortly, you may be enjoying with these gamers that you simply had as soon as watched or aspired to be like. I feel simply working exhausting and timing – every thing simply form of falls into place naturally, I feel.
Kelly: Is it fairly exhausting to consider in that at occasions, although, since you form of… you possibly can management a lot, however you possibly can’t management your luck? Or are you able to, do you assume?
Ollie: Yeah, I feel it is nonetheless one thing I am coming to phrases with. You are able to do all you possibly can all through the week and put together as finest as you possibly can for a recreation, however generally issues are out of your management. There are occasions the place, you realize, it is lonely. You may’t take your mates all over the place with you and your loved ones and the folks closest to you.
You have to work exhausting and do it your self and persevere on the finish of the day, and in the event you hold working exhausting it would repay.
Kelly: What’s been the hardest second?
Ollie: The hardest second for me has in all probability been… all through all my profession… I’d in all probability say this season. Simply because I’ve performed so properly to get to the place I’m – attending to the Premier League… we had a little bit of a dip… I scored objectives. And you then set that expectation of… I feel I hit a brand new stage, scoring objectives and being in Europe as properly. That purpose… after the Euros, I feel there’s extra eyes on you then.
This 12 months, I have never been on the stage I wished to. So, to be taught to take care of that’s exhausting. And, look, it may at all times change. Soccer can at all times change. It is going to be a recreation the place you possibly can exit, rating three objectives after which everybody talks about you, like: ‘Ah, he is again in kind.’
I feel that change of not being on the stage the place you need to be… I feel for me this 12 months has been troublesome. However I’ve at all times acquired religion in my potential and I work so exhausting that I do know I can get again to the extent that I’ve achieved in earlier seasons.
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