Back when Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut against Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That prediction proved to be a bit of an underestimation.
Today 22 years old and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the playmaker has just received his maiden call-up to the full England squad.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a proper blast from the past, a story seldom told in the modern era.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of making it as a pro footballer, let alone featuring in the Premier League and representing England too,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It has been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and things have transformed drastically for me and my loved ones.”
So in what way did Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up here?
Developing in the lower tiers
Scott’s football journey has been far from a conventional one.
He spent over four years in Southampton’s youth system from the age of eight, skipping school every Friday to travel by air from his island home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could attend training and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to he turned 13, however, they decided to let him go. The Cherries gave him an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he opted to stay on the island and play for his local team.
“My form had dipped and traveling every week was becoming a bit too much,” he explained.
“I just wanted to relax at my home with my mates at weekends because I had missed nearly four and a half years of doing that. To have that slice of childhood again was something I definitely required.
“Building a bit of self-belief by returning and taking part in island football was massive for me. That proved to be perhaps the most crucial things that led me to this point.”
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 Isthmian League fixture at the opposition.
“I had sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the team because his talent is obvious,” manager the coach stated at the time.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the manner he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club the Robins – owned 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.
“It was chaos,” recalled Scott. “The first day I trained with the under-18s, the next day I trained with the first team, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in London, returned home and on the Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a three goals. From that point a done deal for me to sign a deal.”
Within a year and a half, even well before his 18th birthday, he was earning his senior debut versus the Hatters.
He made eighty-three league outings for the club while still a teenager, frequently being used as a wing-back – and sometimes further forward as a attacking midfielder – such was his versatility and flexibility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his skill to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to Manchester City and national team attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the EFL Championship’s best young player honour, was selected in the division’s team of the year and was voted Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I believe he’ll play for his country and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the sport,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Within three months later, he signed for the Cherries for a reported fee of £25m.
Getting his major transfer
Scott experienced a difficult debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until the autumn to earn his top-flight debut after a knee injury in pre-season, and then finding himself inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for almost four months.
“I had a decent run at the end of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I broke my jaw,” said Scott.
“It was almost another obstacle and the year was shaping up as quite a terrible year for the first half.”
But he was then selected by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He started five of the England U21s’ six games as they went on to win the competition in the host nation, developing a formidable partnership in midfield with his teammate, who himself has excelled for the first team under the national coach.
And he has begun the current campaign equally as strongly for his club, featuring in every game to help them to fifth in the table.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my life,” Scott said recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a player, keep enjoying the game, getting better every day, and hopefully I impress the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
