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 back then predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
This prediction turned out to be a bit of an understatement.
Now aged 22 and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the playmaker has just received his first call-up to the full England team.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a proper throwback, a story rarely told in the modern era.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of making it as a pro footballer, let alone playing in the top division and representing England too,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It has been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have changed completely for me and my family.”
So how did Alex Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up here?
Developing in the lower tiers
Scott’s path in football has not been a conventional one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could attend training and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to his 13th birthday, though, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an option and he remained with them for a time, but, as he later admitted, his heart was not in it.
Rather, he chose to stay on Guernsey and turn out for his hometown club.
“My form had dipped and flying over weekly was starting to feel a bit too much,” he recalled.
“All I desired to relax at home with my mates at the weekend because I missed almost four and a half years of that experience. To have that slice of childhood back was something I really needed.
“To gain a bit of confidence by returning and playing local football was massive for me. That proved to be perhaps one of the most important factors that got me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, the teenager became the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half replacement in their league match at the opposition.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the side because his talent is obvious,” manager the coach stated at the time.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is outstanding, the way he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Championship side Bristol City – owned by islander Steve Lansdown – had been monitoring Scott’s early progress after an promising start in adult football and gave him a trial in late 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” recalled the player. “Day one I joined the youth team, the next day I was with the first team, 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 scored a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
Within a year and a half, even well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
Scott made eighty-three league outings for the club while still a teenager, often being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his versatility and versatility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was their best player.
With 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 City and national team attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he claimed the second tier’s young player of the season award, was chosen in the division’s best XI and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I believe he will represent England and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, Scott’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated previously.
Less than three months later, he joined the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of £25m.
Getting his major transfer
The midfielder endured a difficult first season with the club, waiting until the autumn to earn his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being inconsistent of the team.
His following season was just as affected, this time by a knee operation which ruled him out for nearly several months.
“I had quite a good run at the close of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” said Scott.
“It was yet another setback and the year was turning out to be a pretty bad start for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in get himself fit in time.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they claimed victory in the competition in the host nation, developing a formidable understanding in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has excelled for the senior side under the national coach.
And he has begun this season equally as impressively for Bournemouth, playing in every game to help them to fifth in the standings.
“Representing the England senior team would be one of the proudest occasions of my career,” the player stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must keep progressing as a player, maintain my love for the game, getting better every day, and hopefully I impress the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
