When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut against Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 spectators in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
This prediction proved to be a bit of an understatement.
Now aged 22 and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the playmaker has earned his maiden call-up to the full England squad.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to potential England player is a proper throwback, a journey rarely seen in the modern game.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was no chance of becoming a professional football player, let alone playing in the Premier League and playing for the national team as well,” the player said previously.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have transformed drastically for me and my family.”
But how did Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Learning in non-league
His path in football has not been a typical one.
He spent over four years in the Saints’ youth system starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to travel by air from his home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Before his 13th birthday, however, they released him. Bournemouth were willing to offer Scott an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart was not in it.
Instead, he opted to stay on the island and turn out for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over every week was becoming overwhelming,” he explained.
“All I desired to chill at home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed nearly four and a half years of that experience. Getting that little bit of youth back was something I definitely needed.
“To gain some self-belief by returning and playing local football was massive for me. It was probably the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he was introduced as a 57th-minute replacement in their Isthmian League match at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could include him in the team because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance stated at the time.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the way he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been tracking his early progress after an impressive beginning in men’s football and arranged a trial in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” said the player. “Day one I trained with the youth team, the next day I trained with the senior squad, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in the capital, travelled back and on the Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and netted a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
In just a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
He went on to make 83 league outings for the club while in his teens, 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.
With his ability to carry the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and England playmaker Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 season he won the second tier’s young player of the season honour, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for his country and I’m sure he’ll go on to the top of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at the club, remarked last year.
Less than three months later, he joined Bournemouth for a understood fee of £25m.
Getting his major transfer
Scott experienced a difficult debut campaign with the club, waiting until the autumn to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in pre-season, and then finding himself in and out of the team.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a knee operation which ruled him out for nearly four months.
“There was quite a good run at the close of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” said Scott.
“It was almost another obstacle and it was turning out to be a pretty bad start for the first half.”
But he was then called up by England for the U21 Euros – and managed to regain fitness for the tournament.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they claimed victory in the tournament in the host nation, developing a strong partnership in the middle with his teammate, who himself has gone on to impress for the senior side with Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun the current campaign just as strongly for Bournemouth, playing in all matches to guide them to the top five in the standings.
“Representing the national team would be among the most special occasions of my life,” the player said recently.
“It’s down to me, I must continue developing as a footballer, maintain my love for the game, improving every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
