When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut versus Phoenix Sports in front of a mere 55 spectators in 2019, his coach back then assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That statement proved to be a bit of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the midfielder has earned his first call-up to the senior England team.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to potential international star is a proper blast from the past, a story seldom seen in the modern game.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, let alone featuring in the top division and playing for the national team too,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It has been a incredible five or six years of my life, and circumstances have changed drastically for myself and my loved ones.”
So how did Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up at this level?
Developing in the lower tiers
His football journey has not been a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in Southampton’s academy setup from the age of eight, leaving school early each Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the south coast so he could train and play for the club’s academy sides.
Before he turned 13, though, they released him. Bournemouth were willing to offer Scott 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.
Instead, he chose to remain on Guernsey and play for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over every week was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.
“All I desired to chill at my home with my mates at the weekend because I missed almost several years of doing that. Getting that little bit of youth again was a thing I really required.
“To gain some self-belief by returning and playing local football was massive for me. It was probably the most crucial factors that led me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, Scott made history as the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a 57th-minute replacement in their league fixture 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,” Guernsey boss the coach 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
Championship side the Robins – chaired by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been tracking Scott’s development after an impressive beginning in adult football and arranged a try-out in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” said the player. “The first day I trained with the youth team, 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 by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. From that point a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
Within 18 months, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut versus the Hatters.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league outings for the Robins while in his teens, often being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally further forward as a number 10 – such was his versatility and flexibility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his skill to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and national team attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 season he won the second tier’s best young player honour, was selected in the league’s best XI and was voted the club’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I think he will represent England and I’m sure he’ll go on to the top of the sport,” his former manager, Scott’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Within three months after, he joined Bournemouth for a reported fee of £25m.
Securing his big move
Scott experienced a difficult debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until the autumn to make his Premier League 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 surgery which sidelined him for almost several months.
“There was quite a good run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” said Scott.
“That felt like almost another obstacle and the year was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first half.”
But he was then called up by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six matches as they went on to win the competition in the host nation, forming a strong understanding in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who himself has gone on to impress for the senior side under the national coach.
And he has begun this season just as strongly for Bournemouth, featuring in all matches to guide them to the top five in the standings.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” Scott said recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, getting better every day, and hopefully I impress the England manager and get my chance.”
