Back when Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 fans in 2019, his coach at the time assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That statement proved to be something of an understatement.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has just received his maiden summons to the full Three Lions team.
His rise from non-league prodigy to possible England player is a true blast from the past, a story rarely told in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, never mind featuring in the Premier League and representing the national team as well,” the player said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and things have transformed completely for myself and my loved ones.”
So how did Alex Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself at this level?
Learning in the lower tiers
His path in football has been far from a typical one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could attend training and play for the club’s academy sides.
Before he turned 13, though, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an option and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he chose to remain on Guernsey and turn out for his hometown club.
“My form had dipped and traveling every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to relax at home with my mates at weekends because I had missed almost several years of doing that. To have that little bit of childhood again was a thing I really required.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by coming back and playing island football was massive for me. It was probably the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he was introduced as a 57th-minute replacement in their league match at the opposition.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could include him in the team because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance stated back then.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the manner he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side the Robins – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been monitoring Scott’s early progress after an impressive start in men’s football and gave him a trial in late 2019.
“It was hectic,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the under-18s, the next day I trained with the first team, which was a complete surprise.
“On the Wednesday I featured for Guernsey FC in the capital, returned home and by Friday, I played for the youth team and netted a hat-trick. From that point a certainty 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 first-team debut against the Hatters.
Scott made 83 league outings for the club while in his teens, often being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally in attack as a number 10 – demonstrating his versatility and versatility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was their best player.
With his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a nod to City and national team playmaker Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign he won the EFL Championship’s young player of the season award, was chosen in the division’s team of the year and was named Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I believe he will represent his country and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the game,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked previously.
Less than 90 days after, he signed for the Cherries for a understood fee of £25m.
Securing his major transfer
Scott endured a challenging debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then finding himself inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was equally disrupted, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for nearly several months.
“I had a decent run at the end of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained Scott.
“It was yet another setback and it was turning out to be quite a terrible year for the first half.”
But he was then called up by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to get himself fit for the tournament.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six games as they went on to win the competition in the host nation, forming a strong understanding in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who himself has excelled for the first team under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has started this season equally as impressively for Bournemouth, playing in all matches to help them to fifth in the table.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my career,” Scott said earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a player, maintain my love for football, getting better day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the England manager and get my chance.”
