Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his coach back then assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
This prediction proved to be something of an underestimation.
Today 22 years old and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the playmaker has just received his maiden summons to the full Three Lions team.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential England player is a true blast from the past, a story seldom seen in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, never mind featuring in the Premier League and playing for England too,” the player said previously.
“It’s been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have changed drastically for myself and my family.”
But how did Alex Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself at this level?
Learning in the lower tiers
Scott’s path in football has not been a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in the Saints’ youth system from the age of eight, skipping school each Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and play for the club’s academy sides.
Before he turned 13, however, they decided to let him go. The Cherries were willing to offer Scott an option and he remained with them for a time, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he chose to stay on the island and play for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling every week was starting to feel overwhelming,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my friends at weekends because I had missed almost four and a half years of that experience. Getting that slice of childhood again was a thing I definitely required.
“Building some confidence by returning and playing local football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps one of the most important things that led me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, Scott made history as the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a second-half replacement in their Isthmian League match at the opposition.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the side because his talent is obvious,” Guernsey boss the coach stated back then.
“People have witnessed 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
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been monitoring his development after an promising beginning in adult football and arranged a trial in late 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” recalled Scott. “Day one I joined the youth team, the second day I was with the first team, which was a complete shock.
“On the Wednesday I played for his local side in the capital, returned home and on the Friday, I took the field for the youth team and netted a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
Within 18 months, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
Scott made eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while in his teens, often being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally further forward as a number 10 – demonstrating his versatility and flexibility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was their best player.
Thanks to his ability to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and national team playmaker Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s young player of the season award, was chosen in the league’s team of the year and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I believe he’ll play for his country and I’m sure he will progress to the pinnacle of the sport,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s boss at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Less than three months after, he joined Bournemouth for a reported transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his big move
The midfielder endured a difficult first season with the club, waiting until the autumn to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the starting XI.
His second campaign was equally affected, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for nearly four months.
“There was a decent 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 obstacle and it was shaping up as a pretty bad year for the first half.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in get himself fit for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they claimed victory in the tournament in Slovakia, developing a formidable understanding in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who himself has excelled for the senior side with the national coach.
And he has begun this season equally as impressively for his club, playing in every game to help them to fifth in the standings.
“Representing the England senior team would be one of the proudest moments of my life,” the player stated earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to continue developing as a player, keep enjoying the game, improving day on day, and with luck I impress the England manager and get my chance.”
