When the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
This prediction turned out to be a bit of an understatement.
Today 22 years old and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the playmaker has earned his maiden call-up to the full Three Lions team.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to potential England player is a proper blast from the past, a story rarely told in the modern game.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was no chance of becoming a pro footballer, never mind playing in the Premier League and playing for England as well,” the player stated previously.
“It’s been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for myself and my family.”
But how did Alex Scott, known fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself at this level?
Learning in non-league
His football journey has not been a conventional one.
He was part of over four years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, skipping school each Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could train and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to he turned 13, however, they released him. Bournemouth gave him an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he opted to stay on Guernsey and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling every week was becoming overwhelming,” he explained.
“I just wanted to chill at my home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed almost several years of doing that. Getting that slice of youth back was a thing I really required.
“Building some confidence by returning and taking part in local football was huge for me. That proved to be probably one of the most important factors that got me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, Scott made history as the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a 57th-minute substitute in their league match at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the side because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance commented back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the way he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side the Robins – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been tracking his early progress after an promising beginning in men’s football and gave him a trial in late 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled Scott. “The first day I joined the youth team, the second day I trained with the senior squad, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in London, returned home and by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. It was almost a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
Within a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut versus Luton.
He went on to make 83 league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, often being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – such was his adaptability and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
With his skill to drive the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and national team attacking midfielder Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign he won the EFL Championship’s young player of the season honour, was chosen in the league’s team of the year and was named Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I believe he’ll play for England and I think he’ll go on to the top of the sport,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s boss at Ashton Gate, remarked previously.
Less than three months later, he joined the Cherries for a reported fee of £25m.
Getting his big move
Scott experienced a difficult debut campaign with the club, having to wait until the autumn to make his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then finding himself inconsistent of the team.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for almost four months.
“I had quite a good run at the close of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained Scott.
“That felt like almost another setback and it was turning out to be quite a terrible year for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they went on to win the tournament in the host nation, developing a formidable partnership in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has excelled for the first team with the national coach.
And he has started the current campaign equally as strongly for his club, playing in all matches to help them to the top five in the standings.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” Scott stated earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I must keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, getting better day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
