Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his coach at the time predicted, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
This prediction proved to be something of an understatement.
Now 22 years old and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the playmaker has just received his first call-up to the full Three Lions squad.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to possible England player is a proper blast from the past, a journey seldom told in the modern game.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was no chance of making it as a pro footballer, never mind featuring in the Premier League and representing England too,” the player said previously.
“It’s been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have changed completely for me and my family.”
So in what way did Alex Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Learning in the lower tiers
His path in football has been far from a typical one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system from the age of eight, skipping school each Friday to fly from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could attend training and play for the club’s academy sides.
Before he turned 13, though, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him 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 remain on the island and turn out for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over weekly was starting to feel a bit too much,” he recalled.
“All I desired to relax at home with my mates at the weekend because I missed almost several years of that experience. Getting that little bit of youth again was a thing I definitely required.
“Building a bit of self-belief by coming back and taking part in island football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps the most crucial factors that got me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, the teenager made history as the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half substitute in their league fixture at the opposition.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could get him in the team because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance commented at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Championship side Bristol City – owned by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been tracking his development after an impressive start in adult football and gave him a try-out in late 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled the player. “Day one I joined the under-18s, the next day I was with the first team, which was a total shock.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in the capital, returned home and on the Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a hat-trick. From that point a done deal for me to sign a deal.”
In just 18 months, even well before his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut versus Luton.
Scott made 83 league appearances for the Robins while in his teens, often being used as a wing-back – and occasionally further forward as a number 10 – such was his versatility and versatility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
With his ability to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and England attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign he won the EFL Championship’s young player of the season honour, was selected in the league’s team of the year and was named Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I believe he will represent England and I think he will progress to the top of the game,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked previously.
Within 90 days later, he joined the Cherries for a reported fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his major transfer
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 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 ruled him out for nearly several months.
“There was a decent run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” said he.
“That felt like almost another obstacle and it was shaping up as a pretty bad year for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by England for the U21 Euros – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six games as they went on to win the tournament in the host nation, developing a formidable understanding in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has gone on to impress for the senior side under the national coach.
And he has started this season equally as strongly for Bournemouth, featuring in every game to help them to fifth in the standings.
“To play for the England senior team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” the player said recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must keep progressing as a player, keep enjoying football, improving day on day, and with luck I impress the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
