Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports in front of a mere 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That statement proved to be a bit of an understatement.
Now aged 22 and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the playmaker has just received his maiden summons to the senior England team.
His rise from non-league prodigy to possible England player is a proper blast from the past, a journey seldom told in the modern era.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of making it as a professional football player, never mind featuring in the top division and representing the national team as well,” Scott stated in a recent interview.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have changed drastically for myself and my family.”
So how did Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up at this level?
Learning in the lower tiers
His football journey has not been a typical one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to fly from his island home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could attend training and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before he turned 13, though, they released him. Bournemouth gave him an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind was not in it.
Rather, he opted to remain on the island and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over weekly was becoming a bit too much,” he explained.
“I just wanted to chill at my home with my friends at weekends because I missed almost four and a half years of doing that. To have that slice of youth back was a thing I really required.
“To gain some self-belief by returning and playing local football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps one of the most important factors that got me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, Scott became the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a second-half replacement in their Isthmian League fixture at the opposition.
“I had sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the side because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance commented back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side the Robins – chaired by islander their owner – had been tracking his development after an promising beginning in adult football and gave him a try-out in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” said the player. “Day one I joined the youth team, the next day I trained with the senior squad, which was a total shock.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in London, returned home and by Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and netted a three goals. It was almost a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just 18 months, even well before his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut against Luton.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, often being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a number 10 – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Despite his youth and playing out of position 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 nickname ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and England playmaker Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he claimed the second tier’s best young player award, was selected in the league’s best XI and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think he will represent England and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the sport,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s boss at Ashton Gate, remarked previously.
Within 90 days after, he joined Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his major transfer
The midfielder experienced a challenging debut campaign with the club, waiting until October to make 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 knee operation which ruled him out for almost four months.
“There was a decent run at the close of last season, which was good to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.
“That felt like yet another setback and the year was shaping up as quite a terrible year for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to regain fitness in time.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they claimed victory in the competition in the host nation, forming a strong partnership in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has excelled for the first team under the national coach.
And he has started this season equally as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in all matches to guide them to the top five in the table.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my career,” the player stated earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a player, maintain my love for football, getting better every day, and with luck I impress the national coach and get my chance.”
