How England's Euro man-of-the-moment Ollie Watkins almost became a Wigan Athletic player!

The 28-year-old striker is riding the crest of the wave after his goals helped Aston Villa reach the Champions League for the first time.

But Wigan Today can reveal for the first time just how close his remarkable journey from non-league to Euro star very nearly saw him stop off at Wigan Athletic along the way.

A product of the Exeter City Academy, the Torquay native learned his trade out on loan at Weston-super-Mare in 2014-15, scoring 10 times in 25 appearances.

On his return to Exeter, though, he struggled to make an impression on the first-team picture, and played most of his football in the Under-21s - when he first came onto the Wigan radar.

Watkins was watched regularly by Colin Hamlet, Jamie Roberts, Richard Hughes, Matt Jackson and Stuart White, who fed positive scouting reports back.

However, over the next year or so, Watkins broke into the first-team set-up - which started to take any hopes of a deal away from Latics.

Armed with the £7million fee received from Norwich for Yanic Wildschut in January 2017, Latics tested the water with Exeter - and were prepared to go to £1.75million to get their man.

However, by that time a host of other clubs had become aware of his progress - with Brentford eventually winning the race that summer.

"As soon as he was in the first team, he was on a lot of clubs’ radars," said former Latics CEO Jonathan Jackson.

"I rang Steve Perryman (Exeter director of football) and enquired, but he said they had agreed a fee with Brentford (believed to be around £1.5million).

"I asked whether it would make a difference if we went to £1.75million, but he said they wanted him to go to Brentford, as they knew they would get a big sell-on...and he was right!

"I spoke with Steve for about half an hour on Ollie. He told me that he moved like a Premier League player. He said: 'I just know by watching him run and the things he does that he will play at the highest level'.

"I tried to convince Steve that Wigan was a good club for Ollie to join, but it was clear they had a plan for him to maximise the total fee, and that they wanted him to go to Brentford.

"The player wanted Brentford as well, so it wasn't as if the deal 'fell through’, it never got to first base, but we did have a go."

Brentford eventually secured a deal in the summer of 2017, reported to be £1.8million, by which time Latics had been relegated to League One.

Jackson says Latics would still have paid the money even in the third tier, as 'we were reducing the budget, but we believed Ollie was an exceptional talent'.

The rest, as they say, is history, with Watkins scoring 50 goals in 143 appearances for the Bees, before Villa had seen enough to shell out £33million in the summer of 2020 - meaning a multi-million sell-on for Exeter.

A further 70 goals in 169 appearances for Villa has seen him reportedly on the wanted list of Arsenal this summer.

The Latics link to the Euros doesn't end there, with the club moving on from the blow of missing out on Watkins by instead signing another young striker by the name of Ivan Toney, on loan from Newcastle, who has also made his mark in this summer's tournament.

But while Toney was the hero off the bench against Slovakia, and scored a crucial penalty in the shoot-out win over Switzerland, this time it was Watkins’ turn to make an impact.

And he revealed he told fellow substitute Cole Palmer they would connect for England's winner against the Dutch.

After Harry Kane's spot-kick cancelled out a superb Xavi Simons opener, Gareth Southgate's bold decision to replace captain Kane and Phil Foden with Watkins and Palmer in the 81st minute proved a masterstroke.

The Chelsea star fed his fellow substitute to turn and hit a wonderful 90th-minute winner, sealing a last-gasp 2-1 comeback victory and a place in a second successive European Championship final.

"I'm lost for words, really," said Watkins. "When you score there are emotions that come through your body but this is a different feeling. It was slow motion when I was running over to the boys and celebrating.

"I didn't want to get off the pitch at the end because I wanted to soak it all in because it doesn't happen very often really. The goal is my bread and butter, running in behind and causing defence trouble.

"I said to Cole we were both going to get on the pitch and he was going to set me up at half-time. It happened. I manifested it. As soon as he turned I knew to make the move. You don't get that opportunity very often. I had to be greedy. I've seen it go in the bottom corner. I don't think I've hit the ball that sweet before in such a special moment."

Watkins' life changed forever in Dortmund in what was just his second appearance of a challenging tournament for Aston Villa's main man.

"Recently, I've got a little bit frustrated," he said. "I don't like to be on the bench. I've had the best season of my career.

"I've had a few messages from my friends saying be patient. The amount of people I've had message me today saying I'm going to score tonight when I come on is ridiculous.

"Obviously they put it out into the universe so hopefully they can do the same for the final or even give me the lottery numbers!"

Watkins always believed in his ability to make an impact for England at these Euros - something he would not have believed a decade ago.

"I never thought I would be playing in the Euros for England," he said. "You can dream but I'm a realist, I take it day by day. At that time, I was just focusing on getting back into the first team at Exeter! I've put in a lot of hard work to get to this point. I'm going to enjoy every moment. I've taken the chance when I've got it. Now we're in the final and one last game."

Watkins nearly forgot his man-of-the-match trophy as he left the press conference, perhaps due to focus already switching to collective glory in Berlin this weekend.

"As you've seen, Spain are a great footballing team," he added. "So many good players, a lot of squad depth like ourselves. It's the most important game of our lives. We're fully focused on that."