When Alex Scott made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
That statement turned out to be something of an understatement.
Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has earned his first call-up to the senior Three Lions squad.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to possible international star is a true blast from the past, a story seldom seen in the modern game.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of making it as a professional football player, never mind playing in the Premier League and playing for England as well,” the player said in a recent interview.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have changed completely for me and my loved ones.”
But how did Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up here?
Learning in the lower tiers
Scott’s path in football has not been a typical one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, leaving school early each Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could attend training and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to he turned 13, though, they released him. Bournemouth gave Scott an option and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he chose to remain on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he recalled.
“All I desired to relax at my home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed nearly four and a half years of doing that. To have that slice of childhood back was a thing I really required.
“Building some self-belief by coming back and playing island football was massive for me. That proved to be probably one of the most important 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 came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their 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 his talent is obvious,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance stated at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the professional game
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by islander their owner – had been tracking his development after an promising start in men’s football and gave him a trial in late 2019.
“It was hectic,” said Scott. “The first day I joined the youth team, the second day I was with the senior squad, which was a complete surprise.
“On the Wednesday I featured for his local side in London, travelled back and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and scored a three goals. From that point a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus Luton.
He made eighty-three league outings for the Robins while in his teens, frequently being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a number 10 – demonstrating his versatility and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position 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 earned the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and England 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 best XI and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think 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, stated last year.
Less than three months after, he signed for Bournemouth for a understood fee of £25m.
Getting his major transfer
The midfielder endured a difficult debut campaign with the club, having to wait until October to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in pre-season, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for almost four months.
“There was quite a good run at the end of the previous campaign, which was nice 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 selected by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in regain fitness in time.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they claimed victory in the tournament in the host nation, developing a formidable understanding in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who himself has gone on to impress for the senior side with Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun this season just as impressively for his club, featuring in every game to guide them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my life,” the player said recently.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, getting better every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
