When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 spectators in 2019, his coach back then assured, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
That prediction proved to be a bit of an understatement.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the playmaker has just received his first call-up to the senior Three Lions team.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a true blast from the past, a journey seldom told in the modern game.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, let alone featuring in the Premier League and representing England as well,” the player said in a recent interview.
“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 Alex Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself here?
Learning in the lower tiers
Scott’s path in football has not been a conventional one.
He was part of over four years in Southampton’s academy setup starting at eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before he turned 13, though, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth gave Scott an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Instead, he opted to remain on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“My form had dipped and flying over every week was becoming overwhelming,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my friends at weekends because I had missed almost several years of that experience. To have that little bit of childhood again was something I really needed.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by returning and playing local football was huge for me. It was probably the most crucial things that led me to this point.”
When he was just 16, the teenager became the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he was introduced as a 57th-minute replacement in their league match at Phoenix Sports.
“I had sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the team because his talent is obvious,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the manner he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the professional game
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been tracking Scott’s development after an promising beginning in adult football and arranged a try-out in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” recalled the player. “Day one I joined the youth team, the second day I trained with the first team, which was a total shock.
“On the Wednesday I played for his local side in London, returned home and on the Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a hat-trick. From that point a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
In just a year and a half, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut against Luton.
He made 83 league outings for the Robins while in his teens, often being deployed as a wide defender – and sometimes in attack as a number 10 – demonstrating his versatility and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his ability to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a nod to Manchester City and England attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s best young player award, was chosen in the division’s best XI and was voted the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I believe he will represent his country and I’m sure he will progress to the top of the sport,” his former manager, Scott’s manager at the club, remarked previously.
Within 90 days later, he joined the Cherries for a understood fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his big move
The midfielder endured a difficult debut campaign with the Cherries, having to wait until October to make his top-flight debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the starting XI.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for almost several months.
“I had quite a good run at the close of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained 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 the national team for the U21 Euros – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He started five of the England U21s’ six matches as they went on to win the tournament in the host nation, developing a formidable partnership in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who himself has excelled for the senior side under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun this season just as impressively for Bournemouth, playing in every game to help them to the top five in the table.
“To play for the England senior team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” the player stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for the game, improving every day, and with luck I impress the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
