When the young midfielder made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
This prediction turned out to be a bit of an understatement.
Now 22 years old and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has earned his first call-up to the full England squad.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to potential England player is a true throwback, a journey seldom seen in the modern era.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of making it as a professional football player, never mind featuring in the top division and representing the national team too,” the player said previously.
“It has been a incredible five or six years of my life, and things have changed drastically for me and my family.”
So how did Alex Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Developing in non-league
Scott’s football journey has been far from a typical one.
He was part of over four years in the Saints’ youth system from the age of eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his island home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could attend training and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to his 13th birthday, however, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he chose to stay 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 explained.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my mates at the weekend because I had missed nearly several years of that experience. Getting that little bit of childhood back was a thing I definitely required.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by coming back and taking part in island football was massive for me. It was perhaps the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
At the age of 16, the teenager became the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half replacement in their Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the team because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance stated back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side Bristol City – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been tracking his development after an impressive beginning in adult football and arranged a try-out in December 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” said the player. “The first day I joined the under-18s, the next day I trained with the senior squad, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I played for his local side in London, travelled back and by Friday, I played for the youth team and netted a three goals. It was almost a done deal for me to sign a contract.”
In just 18 months, still well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut against Luton.
He made eighty-three league outings for the club while in his teens, frequently being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a number 10 – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was their best player.
Thanks to his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and national team attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s young player of the season honour, was selected in the division’s team of the year and was named Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for his country and I think he will progress to the top of the game,” his former manager, the player’s boss at the club, remarked last year.
Within 90 days later, he joined the Cherries for a understood fee of £25m.
Getting his major transfer
The midfielder endured a challenging debut campaign with the club, waiting until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was just as affected, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for almost several months.
“I had quite a good run at the end of last season, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” said Scott.
“That felt like almost another obstacle and it was shaping up as quite a terrible year for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they claimed victory in the tournament in the host nation, forming a strong understanding in the middle with his teammate, who himself has gone on to impress for the senior side with the national coach.
And he has started the current campaign equally as strongly for his club, playing in every game to help them to the top five in the table.
“Representing the national team would be among the most special moments of my life,” Scott stated recently.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for the game, improving day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
