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WORDS Simon Hart and Joe Terry ILLUSTRATION Dan Evans

There is a moment during Ollie Watkins's interview with Champions Journal when reminiscence opens the door to self-reflection. It comes when the Aston Villa striker stops to remember the Champions League moments that have stayed with him since boyhood. One is a Cristiano Ronaldo rocket for Manchester United at Porto in the 2008/09 quarter-finals. "I don't know why that's the first thing that comes to my mind," says the 28-year-old, sitting in his club tracksuit in a room at Villa's Bodymoor Heath training ground.

He then moves on to another "iconic" goal, this time by Ronaldinho in 2005, "when he got the ball on the edge of the box against Chelsea for Barcelona". Watkins was nine years old but has not forgotten the detail of the Brazilian "doing his dance" - that singular, elastic-hipped movement before he "toe-poked it in" past a stunned and static Petr Čech.

If the young Ollie was mesmerised by Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, his next answer - when asked if he would ever look to emulate those "moments of magic" - shines a light on his self-awareness. This is a young man who grew up far from Britain's football hubs, in the small market town of Newton Abbot, Devon, in the southwest of England, and who has travelled a long road to the uplands of today. "No, not really. I couldn't say that, to be fair. They are a completely different league."

A completely different league. It is worth repeating, as an insight into the mindset of a player who has had to graft to achieve his status as a Champions League footballer with Villa and an international centre-forward with England. “I always believed in myself but I take things step by step and don’t look too far ahead,” he says. “I always knew I was going to be a professional footballer, but I couldn’t tell at what level. I just knew that I wanted to play football for a living and I just took it step by step and didn’t look too far ahead.”

To underline just how many steps he has taken, it is worth recalling that a decade ago – in December 2014 – the then 18-year-old Watkins was stepping out in front of a crowd of 810 spectators at Ebbsfleet United with Weston-super-Mare in the sixth tier of the English pyramid.