Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
This prediction turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.
Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the playmaker has just received his first call-up to the full Three Lions team.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to possible England player is a true blast from the past, a journey seldom told in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, let alone playing in the Premier League and representing the national team too,” Scott stated previously.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for me and my family.”
But in what way did Scott, known fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself at this level?
Developing in non-league
His path in football has not been a typical one.
He was part of over four years in Southampton’s academy setup from the age of eight, leaving school early each Friday to fly from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could attend training and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to he turned 13, though, they decided to let him go. The Cherries gave Scott an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he chose to stay on the island and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling weekly was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my mates at the weekend because I missed nearly several years of that experience. To have that little bit of childhood again was something I definitely needed.
“To gain some confidence by returning and taking part in island football was massive for me. That proved to be perhaps one of the most important things that got me to this point.”
At the age of 16, Scott became the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a second-half replacement in their league fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the team because he’s that good,” manager the coach stated at the time.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the way he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Championship side the Robins – chaired by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been monitoring his early progress after an impressive start in men’s football and arranged a trial in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” recalled the player. “Day one I joined the under-18s, the second day I trained with the first team, which was a complete surprise.
“On the Wednesday I played for his local side in the capital, travelled back and by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a three goals. It was almost a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
In just a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut against the Hatters.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league outings for the club while still a teenager, often being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his versatility and flexibility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his ability to drive the ball forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and national team playmaker Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s young player of the season honour, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was voted Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I believe he will represent England and I’m sure he’ll go on to the top of the sport,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Within three months later, he signed for Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his big move
Scott endured a difficult first season with the club, waiting until the autumn to earn his top-flight debut after a knee injury in pre-season, and then being in and out of the team.
His following season was equally disrupted, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for nearly several months.
“There was a decent run at the close of last season, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained Scott.
“It was yet another obstacle and it was shaping up as a pretty bad start for the first half.”
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 England U21s’ six games as they claimed victory in the competition in the host nation, developing a formidable understanding in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who himself has gone on to impress for the senior side under the national coach.
And he has begun the current campaign equally as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in all matches to guide them to fifth in the table.
“Representing the national team would be among the most special occasions of my life,” the player stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a player, maintain my love for football, getting better every day, and hopefully I impress the national coach and get my chance.”
