Back when Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then assured, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
That statement proved to be a bit of an underestimation.
Today 22 years old and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his first call-up to the senior England team.
His rise from non-league prodigy to potential England player is a proper blast from the past, a journey rarely seen in the modern era.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was no chance of becoming a pro footballer, never mind playing in the top division and playing for the national team too,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a incredible five or six years of my life, and things have transformed drastically for me and my loved ones.”
But how did Alex Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up at this level?
Learning in the lower tiers
Scott’s football journey has been far from a conventional one.
He was part of over four years in the Saints’ youth system from the age of eight, leaving school early every Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could attend training and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before he turned 13, though, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he chose to remain on the island and play for his hometown club.
“My form had dipped and flying over weekly was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my mates at weekends because I missed almost four and a half years of that experience. To have that slice of childhood again was a thing I really needed.
“Building a bit of self-belief by coming back and playing local football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps one of the most important things that led me to this point.”
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 trying to work out how I could get him in the team because his talent is obvious,” Guernsey boss the coach stated back then.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the way he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Second-tier club Bristol City – chaired by islander their owner – had been tracking Scott’s early progress after an promising beginning in adult football and arranged a trial in December 2019.
“It was chaos,” said the player. “The first day I trained with the under-18s, the second day I was with the first team, which was a complete surprise.
“On the Wednesday I featured for Guernsey FC in the capital, returned home and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and scored a three goals. From that point a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
Within 18 months, even well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut against the Hatters.
He went on to make eighty-three league appearances for the club while still a teenager, frequently being deployed as a wing-back – and sometimes further forward as a attacking midfielder – such was his versatility and flexibility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his ability to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and national team playmaker Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he claimed the second tier’s young player of the season honour, was chosen in the division’s team of the year and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I believe he’ll play for his country and I’m sure he will progress to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, the player’s manager at the club, stated previously.
Less than 90 days later, he signed for the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his big move
Scott experienced a difficult debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until October to make his top-flight debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then being inconsistent of the starting XI.
His following season was just as affected, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for almost several months.
“I had quite a good run at the close of last season, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.
“It was almost another obstacle and the year was shaping up as quite a terrible year for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by England for the U21 Euros – and succeeded in regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the competition in Slovakia, developing a formidable understanding in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who himself has gone on to impress for the senior side under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has started the current campaign just as strongly for Bournemouth, featuring in every game to guide them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the national team would be among the most special moments of my life,” Scott stated recently.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to keep progressing as a player, maintain my love for the game, getting better every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the England manager and get my chance.”
