Back when Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey 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 statement turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the playmaker has earned his first call-up to the senior Three Lions squad.
His rise from non-league prodigy to potential England player is a proper blast from the past, a story seldom seen in the modern era.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, let alone featuring in the top division and representing the national team as well,” Scott said previously.
“It’s been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have transformed drastically for me and my loved ones.”
So how did Alex Scott, known fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up at this level?
Learning in non-league
His football journey has not been a typical one.
He was part of four and a half years in the Saints’ youth system starting at eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could attend training and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to he turned 13, though, they released him. The Cherries gave Scott an option and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he chose to stay on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“My form had dipped and flying over every week was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my friends at weekends because I had missed almost four and a half years of that experience. Getting that slice of youth again was something I definitely required.
“To gain a bit of confidence by coming back and playing island football was huge for me. It was perhaps the most crucial factors that led me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, Scott made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their Isthmian League match at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the side because his talent is obvious,” manager the coach stated at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the way he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the professional game
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by islander Steve Lansdown – had been tracking his early progress after an promising beginning in men’s football and gave him a try-out in late 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” said Scott. “Day one I trained with the youth team, the next day I trained with the senior squad, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in the capital, travelled back and by Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and netted a three goals. From that point a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was earning his senior debut versus Luton.
He made eighty-three league appearances for the club while in his teens, frequently being deployed 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 their best player.
Thanks to his ability to drive the ball forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and national team playmaker Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 season he won the second tier’s best young player award, was chosen in the division’s best XI and was named the club’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for his country and I think he will progress to the top of the game,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Less than 90 days after, he signed for Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his big move
The midfielder endured a challenging debut campaign with the Cherries, having to wait until the autumn to make 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 the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” said he.
“That felt like almost another setback and the year was shaping up as a pretty bad start for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in get himself fit for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the competition in Slovakia, forming a strong partnership in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who himself has gone on to impress for the first team with Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun this season equally as impressively for Bournemouth, playing in every game to help them to fifth in the table.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my career,” Scott stated earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I must continue developing as a footballer, keep enjoying football, getting better every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
