Back when the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This prediction turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the midfielder has earned his maiden call-up to the full England squad.
His rise from non-league prodigy to potential international star is a true blast from the past, a journey rarely told in the modern era.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, let alone featuring in the top division and representing England as well,” the player stated previously.
“It has been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for me and my loved ones.”
But how did Alex Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up here?
Learning in the lower tiers
His path in football has been far from a conventional one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s academy setup starting at 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, however, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth were willing to offer him an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he chose to stay on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he explained.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my mates at the weekend because I missed nearly several years of doing that. Getting that slice of childhood again was a thing I definitely needed.
“To gain some confidence by returning and playing local football was huge for me. It was probably one of the most important factors that got me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, Scott made history as the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a 57th-minute substitute in their Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was figuring out how I could get him in the side because his talent is obvious,” manager Tony Vance commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the way he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the professional game
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been tracking Scott’s development after an promising beginning in adult football and arranged a try-out in December 2019.
“It was hectic,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the youth team, the second day I was with the senior squad, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in the capital, travelled back and on the Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a three goals. It was almost a done deal for me to sign a deal.”
In just a year and a half, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut against the Hatters.
He went on to make eighty-three league appearances for the club while in his teens, frequently being used as a wing-back – 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.
Thanks to his ability to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a nod to City and England playmaker Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s best young player award, was chosen in the league’s team of the year and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I think he’ll play for his country and I’m sure he’ll go on to the top of the game,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s boss at the club, remarked last year.
Within three months after, he joined the Cherries for a reported fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his major transfer
The midfielder experienced a difficult debut campaign with the club, having to wait until October to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the team.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for nearly several months.
“There was a decent run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained Scott.
“It was yet another obstacle and it was shaping up as a pretty bad start for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to 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, forming a formidable partnership in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has gone on to impress for the senior side with the national coach.
And he has begun this season equally as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in all matches to help 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 earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to continue developing as a player, keep enjoying football, improving every day, and hopefully I impress the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
