Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
This statement turned out to be a bit of an understatement.
Now 22 years old and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has earned his first summons to the senior Three Lions squad.
His rise from non-league prodigy to possible international star is a true throwback, a story seldom told in the modern era.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of making it as a professional football player, let alone playing in the top division and representing England too,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have changed completely for me and my loved ones.”
But in what way did Alex Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Developing in the lower tiers
Scott’s football journey has not been a conventional one.
He was part of over four years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to travel by air 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 he turned 13, though, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart 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 flying over every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he explained.
“I just wanted to relax at home with my friends at weekends because I had missed almost four and a half years of doing that. Getting that slice of youth back was something I really needed.
“Building a bit of confidence by returning and playing local football was huge for me. It was perhaps the most crucial factors that led me to this point.”
At the age of 16, the teenager made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their league match at the opposition.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could get him in the side because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is outstanding, the way he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Second-tier club Bristol City – chaired by islander Steve Lansdown – had been monitoring Scott’s development after an impressive start in adult football and arranged a try-out in December 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the under-18s, the next day I was with the first team, which was a complete shock.
“On the Wednesday I played for his local side in the capital, travelled back and on the Friday, I took the field for the youth team and netted a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just 18 months, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while in his teens, often being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – such was his versatility and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was their best player.
With his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a nod to City and national team attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he claimed the second tier’s young player of the season award, was selected in the division’s team of the year and was voted the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think he will represent his country and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, Scott’s boss at Ashton Gate, remarked last year.
Within 90 days after, he joined the Cherries for a understood fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his major transfer
The midfielder endured a difficult first season with the Cherries, waiting until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then being in and out of the team.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a knee operation which ruled him out for nearly several months.
“I had quite a good run at the end of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.
“It was yet another setback and the year was turning out to be quite a terrible year for the first half.”
But he was then called up by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to get himself fit for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they claimed victory in the tournament in Slovakia, developing a formidable partnership in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who himself has gone on to impress for the first team under the national coach.
And he has started the current campaign equally as strongly for Bournemouth, featuring in all matches to guide them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the England senior team would be one of the proudest moments of my life,” Scott stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a player, maintain my love for the game, improving every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and get my chance.”
