When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut versus Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That statement proved to be something of an understatement.
Now 22 years old and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the midfielder has just received his first summons to the senior England team.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential England player is a true throwback, a story rarely told in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was no chance of making it as a pro footballer, let alone playing in the Premier League and representing the national team too,” the player stated in a recent interview.
“It’s been a incredible five or six years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for me and my family.”
But how did Alex Scott, known fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up at this level?
Learning in the lower tiers
Scott’s path in football has been far from a conventional one.
He spent over four years in the Saints’ academy setup starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to fly from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before his 13th birthday, however, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer Scott an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart was not in it.
Rather, he chose to stay on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over weekly was starting to feel overwhelming,” he recalled.
“All I desired to chill at home with my mates at weekends because I missed almost several years of that experience. To have that little bit of childhood back was something I definitely required.
“Building a bit of self-belief by returning and taking part in island football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps the most crucial factors that led me to this point.”
When he was just 16, the teenager made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he was introduced as a 57th-minute replacement in their Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the side because he’s that good,” manager Tony Vance commented at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club Bristol City – chaired by islander their owner – had been monitoring his early progress after an promising beginning in adult football and gave him a trial in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” said Scott. “The first day I trained with the under-18s, the next day I trained with the senior squad, which was a complete shock.
“On the Wednesday I played for his local side in London, travelled back and on the Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a hat-trick. 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 making his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, often being used as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was their best player.
With his skill to carry the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and England attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he won the second tier’s best young player award, was selected in the league’s best XI and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I believe he will represent England and I’m sure he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked previously.
Less than three months after, he signed for Bournemouth for a understood fee of £25m.
Getting his big move
Scott endured a difficult first season with the Cherries, waiting until the autumn to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the team.
His second campaign was just as affected, this time by a knee operation which ruled him out for almost several months.
“There was quite a good run at the end of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained Scott.
“That felt like almost another obstacle and it was turning out to be quite a terrible start for the first half.”
But he was then called up by the national team for the U21 Euros – and succeeded in regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they claimed victory in the tournament in the host nation, forming a strong partnership in the middle 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 just as strongly for his club, playing in every game to guide them to fifth in the standings.
“To play for the national team would be among the most special moments of my life,” Scott stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to continue developing as a footballer, maintain my love for the game, improving every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
