Back when the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That prediction proved to be something of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has earned his first summons to the full England team.
His rise from non-league prodigy to potential England player is a true blast from the past, a story seldom seen in the modern era.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of making it as a professional football player, never mind featuring in the top division and playing for the national team too,” the player said previously.
“It’s been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and things have changed drastically for me and my loved ones.”
So in what way did Alex Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Developing in non-league
Scott’s football journey has not been a conventional one.
He spent over four years in the Saints’ youth system starting at eight, skipping school each Friday to fly from his island home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could train and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to he turned 13, however, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth gave Scott an option and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Rather, he chose to remain on the island and turn out for his local team.
“My form had dipped and flying over weekly was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed nearly four and a half years of doing that. To have that slice of childhood back was a thing I definitely required.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by returning and taking part in local football was massive for me. That proved to be perhaps one of the most important things that got me where I am today.”
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 Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the team because he’s that good,” manager the coach stated back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Second-tier club the Robins – chaired by islander their owner – had been tracking Scott’s early progress after an promising beginning in adult football and arranged a try-out in December 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the under-18s, the second day I was with the senior squad, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek 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 put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just 18 months, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut against Luton.
Scott made eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while in his teens, often being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally further forward as a number 10 – demonstrating his adaptability and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
With his skill to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to City and England attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he claimed the second tier’s best young player award, was chosen in the division’s team of the year and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think he will represent his country and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s boss at the club, stated last year.
Within 90 days after, he signed for the Cherries for a understood transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his major transfer
Scott endured a difficult debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then being inconsistent of the starting XI.
His following season was equally affected, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for nearly four months.
“I had quite a good run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” said he.
“It was yet another obstacle and it was turning out to be a pretty bad year for the first half.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six games as they went on to win the competition in Slovakia, forming a formidable understanding in the middle with his teammate, who himself has excelled for the senior side under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has started the current campaign just as impressively for his club, playing in all matches to guide them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the England senior team would be one of the proudest moments of my life,” Scott said recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a footballer, keep enjoying the game, improving every day, and hopefully I impress the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
