When the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
This statement turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.
Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his maiden call-up to the full Three Lions team.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a proper throwback, a journey seldom told in the modern game.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was no chance of becoming a professional football player, let alone playing in the Premier League and representing England as well,” Scott stated previously.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have changed completely for myself and my loved ones.”
But how did Alex Scott, known fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself here?
Developing in non-league
His path in football has not been a conventional one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system from the age of eight, leaving school early each Friday to fly from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could attend training and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before he turned 13, though, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an option and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he chose to stay on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“My form had dipped and traveling weekly was becoming a bit too much,” he explained.
“All I desired to relax at home with my mates at weekends because I had missed almost four and a half years of doing that. Getting that little bit of youth again was a thing I definitely needed.
“To gain some confidence by coming back and playing local football was massive for me. That proved to be perhaps one of the most important factors that got 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 replacement in their league fixture at the opposition.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could get him in the side because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance stated back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Championship side the Robins – chaired by islander Steve Lansdown – had been tracking Scott’s development after an promising beginning in men’s football and gave him a try-out in late 2019.
“It was hectic,” said the player. “The first day I trained with the under-18s, the next day I was with the senior squad, which was a complete shock.
“On the Wednesday I featured for his local side in London, returned home and by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. From that point a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
Within 18 months, even well before his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut against the Hatters.
Scott made eighty-three league outings for the Robins while in his teens, often being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a number 10 – such was his versatility and flexibility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his skill to carry the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to Manchester City and England playmaker Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he claimed the second tier’s best young player honour, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was named Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for his country and I think he will progress to the top of the game,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s boss at the club, stated previously.
Less than 90 days later, he joined the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his major transfer
Scott experienced a difficult debut campaign with the club, having to wait until the autumn to make his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the team.
His second campaign was equally affected, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for nearly several months.
“There was a decent run at the close of last season, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“It was almost another obstacle and the year was turning out to be quite a terrible start for the first half.”
But he was then called up by England for the U21 Euros – and managed to get himself fit in time.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the tournament in the host nation, forming a strong understanding in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has gone on to impress for the first team under the national coach.
And he has begun the current campaign equally as strongly for Bournemouth, featuring in every game to help them to the top five in the table.
“Representing the England senior team would be among the most special moments of my career,” the player said earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I must keep progressing as a player, maintain my love for football, improving every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
