Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before a mere 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 a bit of an understatement.
Today aged 22 and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the playmaker has just received his maiden summons to the senior England team.
His rise from non-league prodigy to potential England player is a proper blast from the past, a story seldom seen in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, never mind playing in the top division and representing the national team as well,” the player said previously.
“It’s been a crazy five or six years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for myself and my family.”
So how did Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself at this level?
Developing in the lower tiers
Scott’s path in football has been far from a typical one.
He was part of over four years in the Saints’ youth system from the age of eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his home on Guernsey to the south coast so he could attend training and play for the club’s academy sides.
Before he turned 13, though, they released him. Bournemouth were willing to offer him an option and he remained with them for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart was not in it.
Instead, he opted to stay on the island and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling every week was starting to feel overwhelming,” he explained.
“I just wanted to chill at my home with my mates at weekends because I missed almost several years of that experience. To have that little bit of childhood back was a thing I definitely needed.
“Building some self-belief by coming back and playing island football was huge for me. It was perhaps one of the most important things that got me to this point.”
At the age of 16, the teenager made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he was introduced as a 57th-minute substitute in their Isthmian League match at the opposition.
“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 Tony Vance commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is outstanding, the way he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by islander Steve Lansdown – had been tracking Scott’s development after an impressive beginning in adult football and gave him a try-out in December 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” said Scott. “The first day I trained with the youth team, the second day I was with the senior squad, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in London, returned home 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 put pen to paper on a contract.”
Within a year and a half, even well before his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut versus Luton.
Scott went on to make 83 league appearances for the Robins while still a teenager, frequently being used as a wide defender – and occasionally in attack as a number 10 – such was his versatility and versatility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was their best player.
With his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and England attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s young player of the season honour, was selected in the league’s team of the year and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think he will represent his country and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s boss at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Less than three months after, he signed for the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his big move
Scott endured a difficult first season 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 inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was equally disrupted, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for almost four months.
“I had quite a good run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” said Scott.
“That felt like yet another obstacle and the year was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six games as they claimed victory in the competition in the host nation, developing a formidable understanding in midfield with his teammate, who himself has excelled for the first team with the national coach.
And he has started the current campaign just as impressively for Bournemouth, playing in every game to guide them to the top five in the table.
“To play for the national team would be among the most special occasions of my career,” the player said earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, keep enjoying football, improving every day, and hopefully I impress the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
