What Makes a World Class Player?

A case study of Ollie Watkins.

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This week I posed the question of whether Ollie Watkins is an elite player in European football, which is really a question of what “elite” means. He has 16 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League this season, behind only Erling Haaland (18) on goals. He’s joint-top for assists with Pascal Groß and Kieran Trippier. On Transfermarkt’s list of the top goal contributors across Europe, Watkins is 10th.

He also plays for what next season could be an elite team, in that Aston Villa will be playing in the Champions League if they can fend off Tottenham Hotspur to claim the fourth and final ticket. (Unless, per the new regime, they both get to go.) The Villans could find themselves in Milan or Madrid, where Watkins could test himself against the world’s best defenses. If he puts up these kinds of numbers in those kinds of competitions, he could make a claim on being a world-class player.

Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé certainly can. They’re near the top of the list with 49 and 46 contributions respectively, and while the German and French leagues are not at the level of the Premier League or La Liga, they’re also doing it in the Champions League. The other Premier League players on that list of contributors are Erling Haaland and Mo Salah, who’ve out-contributed Watkins in significantly fewer games. It’s generational stuff, to be honest: Salah with 34 in 32 matches, Haaland with 35 in 34. It took the Villa striker 41 matches to hit 32.