Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
That statement turned out to be something of an understatement.
Now 22 years old and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the playmaker has earned his maiden call-up to the full Three Lions squad.
His rise from non-league prodigy to potential international star is a proper throwback, a journey seldom told in the modern game.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, let alone playing in the Premier League and representing England too,” the player said previously.
“It’s been a incredible five or six years of my life, and circumstances have transformed drastically for myself and my family.”
But how did Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up here?
Learning in the lower tiers
His football journey has not been a typical one.
He was part of over four years in Southampton’s youth system from the age of eight, skipping school every Friday to travel by air from his home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could attend training and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before he turned 13, however, they released him. Bournemouth were willing to offer Scott an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Instead, he opted to remain on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“My form had dipped and traveling weekly was becoming a bit too much,” he explained.
“All I desired to chill at home with my mates 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 something I really needed.
“To gain some confidence by returning and playing island football was massive for me. It was probably one of the most important factors that led me to this point.”
At the age of 16, the teenager became the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a 57th-minute replacement in their league match at the opposition.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the team because his talent is obvious,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance stated back then.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, 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 monitoring Scott’s early progress after an promising beginning in adult football and arranged a try-out in December 2019.
“It was hectic,” recalled the player. “Day one I trained with the youth team, the second day I was with the senior squad, which was a complete shock.
“On the Wednesday I played for his local side in the capital, travelled back and by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. From that point a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
Within 18 months, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut versus Luton.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league outings for the club while in his teens, often being used as a wide defender – and sometimes in attack as a number 10 – demonstrating his versatility and flexibility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was their best player.
With his skill to drive the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to City and England playmaker Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s young player of the season award, was selected in the league’s best XI and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for his country and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s boss at the club, stated previously.
Within 90 days after, he joined Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of £25m.
Getting his major transfer
The midfielder experienced a challenging first season with the club, waiting until the autumn to earn his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the team.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for nearly several months.
“I had quite a good run at the end of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“It was almost another setback 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 Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they claimed victory in the competition in the host nation, forming a strong partnership 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, playing in every game to help them to the top five in the table.
“To play for the England senior team would be among the most special occasions of my career,” Scott said earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to keep progressing as a player, maintain my love for football, improving day on day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the England manager and get my chance.”
