When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his coach back then assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That statement turned out to be something of an understatement.
Now aged 22 and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his maiden call-up to the senior Three Lions squad.
His rise from non-league prodigy to possible international star is a proper blast from the past, a story rarely told in the modern era.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of making it as a professional football player, let alone playing in the top division and representing England too,” the player stated in a recent interview.
“It’s been a crazy five or six years of my life, and circumstances have changed completely for myself and my family.”
So in what way did Alex Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself at this level?
Learning in non-league
His football journey has not been a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in the Saints’ academy setup starting at eight, skipping school each Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could attend training and play for the club’s academy sides.
Before his 13th birthday, however, they released him. Bournemouth gave Scott an option and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he chose to stay on the island and turn out for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling every week was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.
“All I desired to relax at home with my friends at weekends because I missed nearly several years of that experience. Getting that slice of childhood again was a thing I really required.
“To gain some confidence by returning and taking part in local football was huge for me. It was perhaps the most crucial things that led me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, the teenager became the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a 57th-minute replacement in their Isthmian League fixture 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 stated at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the manner he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been monitoring Scott’s early progress after an promising beginning in men’s football and arranged a try-out in late 2019.
“It was hectic,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the under-18s, the next day I trained with the first team, which was a total shock.
“Midweek I played for his local side in the capital, returned home 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 contract.”
Within 18 months, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
Scott made eighty-three league outings for the Robins while in his teens, frequently being deployed as a wing-back – and sometimes in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his skill to drive the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and national team playmaker Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he claimed the second tier’s young player of the season award, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was voted the club’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I think he will represent England and I’m sure he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at the club, remarked last year.
Less than 90 days after, he joined the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his big move
The midfielder endured a difficult first season with the Cherries, having to wait until the autumn to earn his top-flight debut after a knee injury in pre-season, and then finding himself inconsistent of the team.
His following season was equally 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,” explained Scott.
“That felt like yet another obstacle and it was turning out to be quite a terrible start for the first half.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in get himself fit for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six games as they claimed victory in the competition in the host nation, developing a formidable partnership in midfield with his teammate, who in turn has excelled for the first team under the national coach.
And he has started the current campaign equally as impressively for his club, playing in every game to guide them to the top five in the table.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” the player stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for the game, improving day on day, and hopefully I impress the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
