Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
That prediction proved to be a bit of an underestimation.
Today 22 years old and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has just received his maiden call-up to the full England squad.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential England player is a true blast from the past, a journey rarely seen in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was no chance of making it as a pro footballer, never mind playing in the Premier League and representing the national team too,” the player said in a recent interview.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and circumstances have changed completely for myself and my family.”
So in what way did Alex Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up here?
Learning in non-league
Scott’s football journey has been far from a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in the Saints’ 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 south coast so he could attend training and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Before he turned 13, though, they released him. The Cherries gave him an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, as he later admitted, his heart was not in it.
Rather, he chose to remain on the island and play for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over every week was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to relax at my home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed nearly several years of that experience. To have that little bit of childhood again was a thing I really needed.
“Building some confidence by coming back and playing island football was massive for me. That proved to be probably the most crucial factors that led me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, Scott became the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their Isthmian League match at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the team because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss the coach stated back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Championship side Bristol City – owned by islander their owner – had been monitoring Scott’s early progress after an promising beginning in men’s football and arranged a trial in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” said the player. “Day one I joined the under-18s, the next day I trained with the first team, which was a total shock.
“On the Wednesday I featured for his local side in the capital, returned home and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. It was almost a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
Within a year and a half, even well before his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut versus Luton.
He made 83 league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, often being deployed as a wing-back – and sometimes in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his versatility and versatility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to Manchester City and national team playmaker Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 season he claimed the EFL Championship’s best young player award, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was named Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I believe he’ll play for his country and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the game,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked last year.
Within 90 days after, he signed for the Cherries for a understood fee of £25m.
Securing his big move
Scott experienced a difficult first season with the club, having to wait until the autumn to make his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was just as affected, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for almost four months.
“There was a decent run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” said Scott.
“It was yet another setback and it was turning out to be quite a terrible year for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in get himself fit in time.
He started five of the England U21s’ six matches as they went on to win the competition in Slovakia, forming a strong understanding in the middle with his teammate, who himself has excelled for the first team with the national coach.
And he has begun the current campaign equally as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in all matches to guide them to fifth in the standings.
“To play for the national team would be among the most special occasions of my career,” the player stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to continue developing as a footballer, maintain my love for the game, improving every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
