When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his coach at the time predicted, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This prediction proved to be a bit of an underestimation.
Now 22 years old and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his first summons to the full England team.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to potential international star is a true blast from the past, a story rarely told in the modern game.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, never mind playing in the top division and playing for the national team as well,” Scott said previously.
“It has been a incredible five or six years of my life, and things have changed drastically for me and my loved ones.”
But how did Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself at this level?
Developing in non-league
His path in football has not been a typical one.
He spent four and a half years in the Saints’ youth system starting at eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his island home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could attend training and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to his 13th birthday, however, they released him. Bournemouth gave him an opportunity and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Instead, he opted to stay on the island and play for his local team.
“My form had dipped and traveling every week was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to relax at home with my friends at the weekend because I missed almost four and a half years of doing that. Getting that slice of childhood back was a thing I definitely required.
“Building some confidence by coming back and playing island football was massive for me. That proved to be perhaps the most crucial factors that led me to this point.”
At the age of 16, Scott became the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half substitute in their Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the side because he’s that good,” manager the coach stated back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the way he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club the Robins – chaired by islander their owner – had been tracking Scott’s development after an promising beginning in adult football and gave him a try-out in December 2019.
“It was hectic,” said the player. “The first day I joined the youth team, the next day I was with the first team, which was a complete shock.
“On the Wednesday I featured for Guernsey FC in London, returned home and on the Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a hat-trick. From that point a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just 18 months, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut against the Hatters.
He went on to make eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while still a teenager, often being used as a wing-back – and sometimes in attack as a attacking midfielder – such was his adaptability and flexibility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his skill to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and national team attacking midfielder Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s best young player award, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was named the club’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I think he will represent his country and I’m sure he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, Scott’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Less than three months after, he signed for the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of £25m.
Securing his big move
Scott endured a difficult debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until October to earn his top-flight debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was just as affected, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for almost four months.
“There was quite a good run at the end of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.
“It was yet another setback and the year was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first half.”
But he was then called up by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to get himself fit in time.
He started five of the England U21s’ six matches as they claimed victory in the tournament in Slovakia, forming a strong partnership in the middle with his teammate, who himself has gone on to impress for the first team under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has started this season equally as strongly for Bournemouth, playing in all matches to help them to the top five in the standings.
“To play for the England senior team would be among the most special moments of my career,” the player stated earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, getting better day on day, and hopefully I impress the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
