Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This prediction proved to be a bit of an underestimation.
Now 22 years old and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his maiden summons to the senior Three Lions team.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to possible international star is a proper throwback, a journey seldom told in the modern era.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, let alone playing in the top division and playing for England too,” the player said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a crazy five or six years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for myself and my loved ones.”
So how did Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up at this level?
Learning in non-league
His football journey has not been a typical one.
He spent over four years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, leaving school early every Friday to fly from his home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to his 13th birthday, though, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth were willing to offer Scott an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he opted to remain on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling weekly was starting to feel overwhelming,” he explained.
“I just wanted to chill at my home with my mates at weekends because I had missed almost several years of doing that. Getting that slice of youth again was a thing I really needed.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by coming back and taking part in island football was huge for me. It was probably one of the most important things that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott made history as the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he was introduced as a 57th-minute substitute in their Isthmian League fixture at the opposition.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was figuring out how I could include him in the team because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the way he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by islander Steve Lansdown – had been tracking his development after an promising beginning in adult football and gave him a trial in December 2019.
“It was hectic,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the youth team, the next day I trained with the first team, which was a total shock.
“On the Wednesday I featured for Guernsey FC in London, returned home and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and scored 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 some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut against Luton.
He went on to make eighty-three league outings for the club while still a teenager, frequently being deployed as a wide defender – and sometimes in attack as a number 10 – demonstrating his versatility and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was their best player.
Thanks to his ability to drive the ball forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and national team playmaker Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s best young player honour, was selected in the division’s best XI and was voted Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I think he will represent England and I think he’ll go on to the top of the game,” his former manager, the player’s manager at the club, stated last year.
Less than three months after, he joined Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of £25m.
Getting his major transfer
Scott endured a challenging debut campaign with the club, having to wait until the autumn to make his Premier League debut after a knee problem in pre-season, and then finding himself in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was equally disrupted, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for nearly several months.
“I had a decent run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“It was yet another obstacle and it was turning out to be a pretty bad start for the first five months.”
But he was then selected 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 went on to win the tournament in the host nation, developing a strong understanding in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has gone on to impress for the first team under the national coach.
And he has begun this season equally as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in every game to help them to fifth in the table.
“Representing the England senior team would be among the most special moments of my career,” the player said earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to continue developing as a player, keep enjoying the game, improving day on day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the England manager and get my chance.”
