Back when Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 fans in 2019, his coach back then assured, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This statement turned out to be something of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the playmaker has earned his maiden call-up to the senior England team.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a proper blast from the past, a journey rarely told in the modern game.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was no chance of becoming a pro footballer, never mind playing in the top division and representing the national team too,” the player stated previously.
“It has been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and things have transformed drastically for me and my family.”
But how did Alex Scott, known fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself at this level?
Developing in the lower tiers
Scott’s football journey has not been a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, leaving school early each Friday to fly from his island home on Guernsey 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 gave him an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind was not in it.
Instead, he opted to stay on Guernsey and turn out for his local team.
“My form had dipped and flying over every week was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my friends at the weekend because I missed nearly four and a half years of that experience. To have that slice of youth back was something I really needed.
“Building a bit of self-belief by coming back and taking part in local football was huge for me. It was perhaps one of the most important factors that got me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, Scott became the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half replacement in their Isthmian League match at the opposition.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could get him in the team because he’s that good,” manager the coach commented at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the way he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by islander their owner – had been tracking Scott’s early progress after an impressive beginning in adult football and arranged a trial in late 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” said the player. “Day one I joined the under-18s, the second day I trained with the first team, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in London, travelled back and on the Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and netted a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
In just 18 months, still well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus Luton.
He made eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while in his teens, frequently being used as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a attacking midfielder – such was his versatility and versatility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his ability to carry the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and England playmaker Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he claimed the second tier’s young player of the season honour, was selected in the division’s team of the year and was named the club’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I think he will represent his country and I think he’ll go on to the top of the game,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated previously.
Within three months later, he joined the Cherries for a understood fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his big move
Scott experienced a difficult debut campaign with the club, having to wait until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in pre-season, and then finding himself in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was equally affected, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for nearly several months.
“There was a decent run at the end of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained Scott.
“It was yet another setback and it was shaping up as a pretty bad year for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by the national team for the U21 Euros – and managed to regain fitness in time.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they claimed victory in the competition in Slovakia, developing a strong understanding in midfield with his teammate, who himself has excelled for the senior side under the national coach.
And he has begun the current campaign equally as strongly for Bournemouth, playing in all matches to guide them to fifth in the standings.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” Scott said earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, keep enjoying the game, improving every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and get my chance.”
