When Alex Scott made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his coach at the time assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
This prediction turned out to be something of an underestimation.
Today 22 years old and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has just received his maiden summons to the senior England team.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a proper throwback, a story seldom told in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of making it as a professional football player, let alone playing in the Premier League and representing England too,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a incredible five or six years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for myself and my family.”
But how did Alex Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up here?
Developing in the lower tiers
His football journey has been far from a typical one.
He spent 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 south coast so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to he turned 13, however, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth gave him an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart was not in it.
Rather, he chose to remain on the island and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over weekly 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 had missed nearly four and a half years of that experience. To have that little bit of childhood again was a thing I definitely needed.
“To gain a bit of confidence by coming back and taking part in local football was huge for me. It was perhaps the most crucial things that led me to this point.”
When he was just 16, the teenager became the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their league match at the opposition.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could include him in the side because his talent is obvious,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance commented at the time.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the way he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been monitoring Scott’s early progress 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 trained with the under-18s, the second day I trained with the senior squad, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in London, travelled back and on the Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a three goals. It was almost a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
Within a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league appearances for the club while still a teenager, frequently being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and flexibility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
With his ability to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and national team attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s best young player award, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was named Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I believe he will represent his country and I’m sure he will progress to the top of the game,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated previously.
Less than 90 days later, he joined the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of £25m.
Getting his major transfer
Scott experienced a difficult debut campaign with the club, having to wait until October to earn his top-flight debut after a knee injury in pre-season, and then being inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was equally disrupted, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for almost four months.
“There was quite a good run at the end of last season, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” said he.
“That felt like yet another obstacle and it was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first half.”
But he was then selected by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in get himself fit for the tournament.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the tournament in the host nation, forming a formidable partnership in midfield with his teammate, who in turn has excelled for the senior side under the national coach.
And he has started this season just as strongly for his club, playing in all matches to help them to the top five in the table.
“To play for the England senior team would be among the most special moments of my life,” Scott said recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, keep enjoying the game, improving day on day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
