Back when Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then assured, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This prediction proved to be a bit of an understatement.
Now 22 years old and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his maiden summons to the senior Three Lions team.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to potential England player is a proper throwback, a journey rarely seen in the modern game.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a pro footballer, let alone featuring in the top division and playing for the national team as well,” Scott stated in a recent interview.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and circumstances have transformed drastically for me and my family.”
But in what way did Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Developing in the lower tiers
His football journey has not been a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in Southampton’s academy setup from the age of eight, skipping school every Friday to fly from his island home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could attend training and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to he turned 13, however, they decided to let him go. The Cherries gave him an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he chose to remain on Guernsey and turn out for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling every week was becoming a bit too much,” he explained.
“I just wanted to relax at home with my mates at weekends because I missed almost several years of that experience. To have that slice of youth again was something I definitely required.
“To gain a bit of confidence by coming back and playing island football was massive for me. It was perhaps one of the most important factors that led me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, the teenager made history as the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a second-half substitute in their league match at Phoenix Sports.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the side because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance commented at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is outstanding, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been monitoring his development after an promising start in men’s football and gave him a try-out in late 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” recalled the player. “Day one I trained with the youth team, the second day I trained with the senior squad, which was a complete shock.
“On the Wednesday I played for his local side in the capital, returned home and by Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and netted a hat-trick. From that point a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
Within a year and a half, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut against Luton.
He made eighty-three league outings for the Robins while in his teens, frequently being deployed as a wide defender – and sometimes in attack as a attacking midfielder – such was his adaptability and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his ability to drive the ball forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and national team playmaker Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he claimed the EFL Championship’s best young player award, was selected in the league’s best XI and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I think he will represent his country and I think he will progress to the top of the sport,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s boss at the club, stated previously.
Within three months later, he signed for Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his big move
Scott endured a challenging debut campaign with the Cherries, having to wait until October to earn his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was just as affected, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for almost four months.
“I had quite a good run at the close of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I broke my jaw,” said Scott.
“That felt like almost another setback and it was shaping up as quite a terrible year for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they went on to win the competition in the host nation, developing a formidable understanding in the middle 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 strongly for Bournemouth, featuring in every game 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’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, improving every day, and with luck I impress the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
