When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his coach back then assured, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
That statement turned out to be something of an underestimation.
Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the midfielder has just received his first summons to the full Three Lions team.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to possible England player is a proper throwback, a journey seldom told in the modern game.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of becoming a pro footballer, let alone playing in the top division and playing for the national team as well,” the player stated previously.
“It’s been a incredible five or six years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for me and my loved ones.”
So in what way did Alex Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself here?
Developing in the lower tiers
Scott’s football journey has been far from a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in Southampton’s academy setup starting at eight, skipping school each Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to he turned 13, however, they released him. The Cherries gave him an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind was not in it.
Instead, he opted to stay on Guernsey and play for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he explained.
“All I desired to relax at home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed almost several years of that experience. Getting that little bit of youth again was a thing I definitely required.
“Building some self-belief by returning and taking part in island football was huge for me. That proved to be probably the most crucial factors that led me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a second-half replacement in their Isthmian League match at the opposition.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was figuring out how I could include him in the side because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance stated back then.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the way he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club the Robins – chaired by Guernsey resident their owner – had been monitoring his development after an promising start in men’s football and arranged a try-out in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the youth team, the second day I trained with the first team, which was a total shock.
“Midweek I played for Guernsey FC in London, travelled back and by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. From that point 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 earning his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
Scott went on to make 83 league appearances for the Robins while in his teens, often being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally in attack as a number 10 – such was his adaptability and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his skill to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and England attacking midfielder 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’ll play for England and I’m sure he will progress to the top of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Less than 90 days after, he joined Bournemouth for a understood fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his big move
Scott experienced a difficult first season with the club, having to wait until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for nearly several months.
“There was quite a good run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.
“It was almost another setback and it was turning out to be quite a terrible start for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by the national team for the U21 Euros – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the competition in Slovakia, forming a formidable understanding in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who himself has gone on to impress for the first team with the national coach.
And he has started the current campaign just as strongly for Bournemouth, playing in every game to guide them to fifth in the standings.
“To play for the England senior team would be among the most special occasions of my life,” Scott said earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, improving every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
