Back when the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut against Phoenix Sports in front of a mere 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
That statement turned out to be something of an understatement.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his first call-up to the senior Three Lions team.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to possible international star is a proper blast from the past, a story rarely seen in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of making it as a pro footballer, never mind playing in the Premier League and playing for England as well,” the player stated previously.
“It’s been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and things have changed drastically for myself and my family.”
So how did Alex Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Learning in the lower tiers
His football journey has been far from a conventional one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system from the age of eight, skipping school each Friday to fly from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could attend training and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Before his 13th birthday, though, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer Scott an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, as he later admitted, his heart was not in it.
Instead, he opted to remain on the island and turn out for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over every week was becoming overwhelming,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at my home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed nearly several years of doing that. To have that slice of youth back was a thing I really required.
“Building some confidence by coming back and playing local football was huge for me. It was probably one of the most important things that led me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the side because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss the coach commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is outstanding, the way he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club Bristol City – chaired by islander their owner – had been monitoring Scott’s development after an promising start in men’s football and gave him a try-out in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” recalled Scott. “Day one I joined the under-18s, the next day I was with the senior squad, which was a complete shock.
“On the Wednesday I featured for his local side in London, returned home and by Friday, I played for the youth team and netted a three goals. From that point a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
In just a year and a half, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut versus Luton.
Scott made eighty-three league outings for the Robins while in his teens, often being used as a wing-back – and sometimes in attack as a number 10 – such was his versatility and flexibility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his ability to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and England playmaker Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he claimed the second tier’s best young player honour, was chosen in the league’s team of the year and was voted the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I believe he will represent England and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked previously.
Within 90 days later, he joined Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of £25m.
Securing his major transfer
Scott experienced a difficult first season with the Cherries, waiting until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee problem in pre-season, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for almost several months.
“There was quite a good run at the close of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“That felt like yet another setback and it was shaping up as a pretty bad year for the first half.”
But he was then called up by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to get himself fit for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six matches as they went on to win the tournament in the host nation, forming a strong understanding in midfield with his teammate, who in turn has gone on to impress for the first team under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has started the current campaign equally as impressively for Bournemouth, playing in all matches to guide them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” Scott said recently.
“It’s down to me, I must keep progressing as a player, maintain my love for the game, getting better every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
