Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
This statement turned out to be a bit of an understatement.
Now 22 years old and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the playmaker has earned his maiden summons to the full England team.
His rise from non-league prodigy to potential international star is a proper blast from the past, a story seldom 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 featuring in the Premier League and playing for England as well,” Scott stated previously.
“It has been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for myself and my loved ones.”
So how did Alex Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up here?
Developing 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 starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to fly from his island home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could train and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Before he turned 13, however, they released him. Bournemouth gave him an option and he remained with them for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he chose to stay on the island and play for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling weekly was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to relax at home with my mates at the weekend because I missed nearly four and a half years of that experience. To have that little bit of youth back was a thing I definitely required.
“Building some confidence by coming back and taking part in island football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps one of the most important factors that led me to this point.”
When he was just 16, the teenager became the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a second-half substitute in their Isthmian League match at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the team because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance commented back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the manner he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by islander their owner – had been monitoring Scott’s development after an promising beginning in men’s football and arranged a trial in December 2019.
“It was hectic,” recalled the player. “The first day I trained with the youth team, the second day I was with the first team, which was a complete surprise.
“On the Wednesday I featured for Guernsey FC in the capital, returned home and by Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and netted a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
In just 18 months, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut against Luton.
He went on to make eighty-three league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, often being used as a wing-back – and sometimes further forward as a attacking midfielder – such was his versatility and versatility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his ability to carry the ball forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and England attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s best young player award, was chosen in the league’s team of the year and was voted the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I believe he will represent England and I’m sure he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s boss at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Within 90 days later, he joined the Cherries for a reported fee of £25m.
Securing his big move
The midfielder endured a difficult debut campaign with the Cherries, having to wait until the autumn to make his Premier League debut after a knee problem in pre-season, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for almost several months.
“I had quite a good run at the end of last season, which was good to have, then I broke my jaw,” said Scott.
“That felt like almost another obstacle and the year was turning out to be quite a terrible start for the first half.”
But he was then selected by the national team 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 matches as they went on to win the competition in the host nation, forming a formidable partnership in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has gone on to impress for the senior side under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun this season just as strongly for Bournemouth, featuring in all matches to guide them to fifth in the standings.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my career,” Scott stated earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, keep enjoying the game, improving every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and get my chance.”
