When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports in front of a mere 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
This prediction proved to be a bit of an understatement.
Now aged 22 and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the playmaker has just received his first call-up to the full Three Lions team.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a proper throwback, a story rarely told in the modern game.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of making it as a pro footballer, let alone playing in the top division and playing for England as well,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and things have transformed drastically for myself and my loved ones.”
So how did Scott, known fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up here?
Learning in the lower tiers
His football journey has been far from a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in Southampton’s academy setup from the age of eight, skipping school each Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could train and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to his 13th birthday, though, they released him. Bournemouth were willing to offer him an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart was not in it.
Rather, he opted to stay on the island and play for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he recalled.
“All I desired to relax at my home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed nearly four and a half years of doing that. To have that little bit of childhood back was a thing I definitely needed.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by coming back and playing island football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps the most crucial factors that got me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, Scott made history as the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a 57th-minute substitute in their league match at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could include him in the team because he’s that good,” manager the coach commented at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the way he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Championship side Bristol City – owned by islander their owner – had been monitoring his early progress after an impressive start in men’s football and gave him a trial in December 2019.
“It was hectic,” said the player. “Day one I trained with the under-18s, the next day I was with the first team, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in London, travelled back and on the Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. From that point a done deal for me to sign a deal.”
In just a year and a half, even well before his 18th birthday, he was earning his senior debut versus the Hatters.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league outings for the club while in his teens, often being deployed as a wing-back – and sometimes further forward as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was their best player.
Thanks to his ability to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to City and national team attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he claimed the second tier’s best young player award, was selected in the league’s best XI and was voted the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I believe he will represent England and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s boss at the club, stated last year.
Within 90 days later, he signed for the Cherries for a understood transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his big move
Scott experienced a challenging debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until the autumn to earn his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was equally affected, this time by a knee operation which ruled him out for nearly four months.
“There was a decent run at the close of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained Scott.
“It was yet another setback and it was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by the national team for the U21 Euros – and managed to regain fitness for the tournament.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the tournament in Slovakia, forming a formidable understanding in the middle with his teammate, who in turn has excelled for the senior side with Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun this season equally as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in every game to help them to the top five in the table.
“Representing the England senior team would be among the most special occasions of my career,” Scott stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a player, maintain my love for football, improving day on day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
