Back when Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That statement proved to be something of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has just received his first call-up to the senior England squad.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a proper throwback, a journey rarely told in the modern game.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of making it as a pro footballer, let alone featuring in the Premier League and representing the national team as well,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and things have transformed completely for me and my family.”
So in what way did Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself at this level?
Developing in the lower tiers
His path in football has been far from a typical one.
He spent over four years in Southampton’s youth system from the age of eight, leaving school early every Friday to fly from his island home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before he turned 13, however, they decided to let him go. The Cherries gave Scott an option and he remained with them for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind was not in it.
Instead, he chose to stay on the island and turn out for his hometown club.
“My form had dipped and traveling weekly was starting to feel a bit too much,” he recalled.
“All I desired to chill at home with my friends at weekends because I had missed nearly several years of that experience. Getting that slice of childhood again was a thing I definitely required.
“Building some self-belief by coming back and playing local football was huge for me. It was perhaps one of the most important things that led me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a 57th-minute substitute in their league match at the opposition.
“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 Tony Vance stated back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been monitoring Scott’s development after an promising beginning in adult football and gave him a trial in late 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 surprise.
“On the Wednesday I played for his local side in the capital, returned home and by Friday, I played for the youth team and netted a three goals. From that point a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just a year and a half, even well before his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut versus the Hatters.
He went on to make eighty-three league outings for the club while in his teens, frequently being used as a wide defender – and occasionally in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his skill to drive the ball forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a nod to Manchester City and England playmaker Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s young player of the season honour, was chosen in the division’s best XI and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I believe he’ll play for his country and I’m sure he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, the player’s manager at the club, stated previously.
Within 90 days later, he joined Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of £25m.
Securing his major transfer
The midfielder experienced a challenging debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until October to make his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the team.
His following season was equally affected, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for almost several months.
“I had a decent run at the end of last season, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” said he.
“That felt like 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 managed to regain fitness for the tournament.
He started five of the England U21s’ six games as they went on to win the tournament in Slovakia, developing a formidable partnership in midfield with his teammate, who in turn has excelled for the first team with the national coach.
And he has started this season just as impressively for his club, featuring in every game to help them to the top five in the table.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my life,” the player said recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a player, keep enjoying the game, improving day on day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the England manager and get my chance.”
