When the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This statement turned out to be a bit of an understatement.
Today aged 22 and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the playmaker has earned his first summons to the full Three Lions squad.
His rise from non-league prodigy to possible international star is a proper blast from the past, a story seldom told in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of making it as a professional football player, let alone playing in the top division and playing for the national team too,” the player said previously.
“It has been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have changed drastically for me and my family.”
But in what way did Alex Scott, known fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself here?
Learning in the lower tiers
His football journey has not been a conventional one.
He spent over four years in the Saints’ academy setup from the age of eight, leaving school early each Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could attend training and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Before his 13th birthday, however, they decided to let him go. The Cherries were willing to offer him an opportunity and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he chose to remain on the island and turn out for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling weekly was becoming overwhelming,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to relax at home with my mates at weekends because I missed nearly four and a half years of doing that. Getting that slice of youth back was something I definitely required.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by returning and playing island football was massive for me. That proved to be perhaps the most crucial factors that got me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, Scott made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he was introduced as a 57th-minute substitute in their league fixture at the opposition.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the side because he’s that good,” manager the coach stated back then.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the way he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side Bristol City – chaired by Guernsey resident their owner – had been tracking his early progress after an promising start in adult football and gave him a trial in December 2019.
“It was hectic,” said the player. “Day one I joined the youth team, the next day I trained with the first team, which was a total shock.
“On the Wednesday I played for Guernsey FC in London, travelled back and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and scored a three goals. From that point a done deal for me to sign a deal.”
Within a year and a half, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
He went on to make eighty-three league outings for the Robins while in his teens, often being used as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his versatility and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
With his skill to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a nod to City and England attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s young player of the season honour, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was voted the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I think he will represent his country and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the game,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s boss at Ashton Gate, remarked previously.
Less than three months later, he signed for the Cherries for a understood fee of £25m.
Getting his big move
Scott endured a challenging debut campaign with the club, having to wait until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was equally disrupted, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for almost several months.
“There was quite a good run at the end of last season, which was good to have, then I broke my jaw,” said he.
“That felt like yet another setback and it was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in get himself fit for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they claimed victory in the tournament in the host nation, forming a strong partnership in midfield with his teammate, who himself has excelled for the senior side under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has started the current campaign just as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in every game to guide them to the top five in the table.
“Representing the national team would be among the most special moments of my life,” Scott said earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to continue developing as a player, maintain my love for the game, getting better every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
