Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
This prediction proved to be a bit of an understatement.
Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has earned his maiden call-up to the senior England squad.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to potential England player is a true throwback, a story rarely told in the modern game.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, never mind featuring in the top division and playing for the national team too,” the player stated previously.
“It has been a incredible five or six years of my life, and things have transformed drastically for me and my loved ones.”
So in what way did Scott, known 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 four and a half years in the Saints’ academy setup from the age of eight, skipping school each Friday to fly from his island home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could train and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to his 13th birthday, though, they released him. The Cherries gave him an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind was not in it.
Rather, he chose to remain on Guernsey and play for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over weekly was starting to feel a bit too much,” he explained.
“I just wanted to relax at home with my friends at the weekend because I missed almost several years of that experience. To have that little bit of youth back was something I definitely needed.
“To gain some confidence by coming back and playing island football was massive for me. That proved to be probably the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he came on 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 back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the manner he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Second-tier club the Robins – chaired by Guernsey resident their owner – had been monitoring Scott’s early progress after an promising beginning in men’s football and arranged a trial in late 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” said the player. “The first day I joined the youth team, the next day I trained with the senior squad, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in the capital, returned home and by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and netted a hat-trick. It was almost a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
Within 18 months, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut against Luton.
Scott made eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while still a teenager, often being used as a wide defender – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was their best player.
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 Jack 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 league’s best XI and was named Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I believe he will represent his country and I’m sure he will progress to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, Scott’s boss at the club, remarked previously.
Less than three months later, he joined the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of £25m.
Getting his big move
The midfielder endured a difficult debut campaign with the club, waiting until October to make his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself inconsistent of the starting XI.
His following season was equally affected, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for nearly four months.
“I had a decent run at the close 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 turning out to be a pretty bad year for the first half.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to regain fitness in time.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six games as they went on to win the tournament in Slovakia, developing a formidable partnership in the middle with his teammate, who in turn has gone on to impress for the senior side with the national coach.
And he has started this season equally as strongly for Bournemouth, featuring in every game to guide them to fifth in the table.
“Representing the England senior team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” Scott stated earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I must continue developing as a footballer, maintain my love for the game, improving every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
