When the young midfielder made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager at the time predicted, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
This prediction turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his first summons to the senior Three Lions team.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to possible international star is a proper blast from the past, a story seldom told in the modern game.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was no chance of becoming a professional football player, let alone playing in the Premier League and representing England as well,” the player said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a incredible five or six years of my life, and circumstances have changed drastically for me and my family.”
But how did Alex Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Learning in non-league
His football journey has not been a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to travel by air from his island home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could attend training and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before his 13th birthday, though, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth were willing to offer Scott an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
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 becoming overwhelming,” he explained.
“I just wanted to relax at my home with my mates at weekends because I had missed nearly several years of doing that. Getting that slice of childhood again was something I really needed.
“To gain some confidence by coming back and playing local football was massive for me. That proved to be probably one of the most important things that led me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott made history as the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half replacement in their Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I had sleepless nights because I was figuring out how I could get him in the side because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is outstanding, the manner he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the professional game
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been tracking his development after an impressive start in adult football and gave him a try-out in late 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” recalled Scott. “The first day I trained with the youth team, the next day I trained with the first team, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in the capital, travelled back and on the Friday, I took the field for the youth team and netted a hat-trick. From that point a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
Within a year and a half, even well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
He went on to make 83 league appearances for the Robins while still a teenager, frequently being deployed as a wide defender – and sometimes in attack as a number 10 – such was his versatility and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
With his skill to drive the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a nod to City and national team playmaker Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign he won the EFL Championship’s best young player award, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was voted the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I believe he will represent his country and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked last year.
Less than 90 days after, he joined the Cherries for a understood fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his major transfer
Scott experienced a difficult first season with the Cherries, waiting until October to make his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for almost several months.
“I had a decent run at the close of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“That felt like almost another obstacle and it was turning out to be quite a terrible start for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by England for the U21 Euros – and managed to regain fitness for the tournament.
He started five of the England U21s’ six matches as they claimed victory in the tournament in the host nation, developing a strong partnership in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who himself has gone on to impress for the first team with Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun the current campaign just as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in all matches to help them to fifth in the standings.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my life,” Scott stated recently.
“It’s down to me, I must continue developing as a footballer, keep enjoying football, improving day on day, and hopefully I impress the national coach and get my chance.”
