Back when Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 fans in 2019, his coach back then predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That prediction turned out to be something of an underestimation.
Now 22 years old and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the playmaker has earned his maiden call-up to the senior Three Lions team.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to possible international star is a proper throwback, a journey seldom told in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was no chance of becoming a professional football player, let alone playing in the top division and representing England too,” Scott said previously.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and circumstances have changed drastically for myself and my family.”
So how did Alex Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up at this level?
Developing in the lower tiers
Scott’s football journey has not been a conventional one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s academy setup from the age of eight, skipping school each Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could attend training and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Before his 13th birthday, however, they released him. Bournemouth gave Scott an opportunity and he remained with them for a while, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind was not in it.
Rather, he opted to remain on the island and turn out for his hometown club.
“My form had dipped and traveling weekly was starting to feel overwhelming,” he recalled.
“All I desired to chill at home with my mates at the weekend because I had missed nearly several years of doing that. Getting that slice of youth back was a thing I definitely required.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by returning and taking part in island football was massive for me. That proved to be perhaps the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, the teenager became the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he was introduced as a second-half replacement in their Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I had sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the side because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss the coach stated at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the way he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Championship side Bristol City – chaired by islander Steve Lansdown – had been monitoring his development after an promising start in adult football and gave him a trial in December 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the youth team, the next day I was with the first team, which was a total shock.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in London, returned home and by Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a hat-trick. From that point a certainty for me to sign a contract.”
Within 18 months, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut against Luton.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league appearances for the club while in his teens, frequently being used as a wide defender – and sometimes in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and flexibility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his skill to carry the ball forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to Manchester City and England attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he claimed the second tier’s best young player honour, was selected in the division’s best XI and was named Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I believe he will represent his country and I’m sure he will progress to the top of the sport,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Within 90 days after, he joined Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of £25m.
Getting his big move
The midfielder endured a difficult debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until the autumn to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His second campaign was equally 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 nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“That felt like almost another obstacle and it was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first half.”
But he was then selected by England for the U21 Euros – and managed to get himself fit in time.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they claimed victory in the tournament in Slovakia, developing a formidable understanding in the middle with his teammate, who in turn has excelled for the first team with Thomas Tuchel.
And he has started the current campaign equally as strongly for Bournemouth, featuring in every game to guide them to the top five in the standings.
“To play for the England senior team would be one of the proudest moments of my life,” Scott stated earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to keep progressing as a player, keep enjoying the game, getting better day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
