When the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 spectators in 2019, his coach back then predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That prediction turned out to be something of an understatement.
Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the midfielder has just received his first call-up to the senior Three Lions team.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to possible international star is a proper throwback, a journey seldom told in the modern game.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of making it as a pro footballer, let alone featuring in the Premier League and playing for England too,” Scott stated in a recent interview.
“It’s been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have transformed drastically for myself and my family.”
But how did Alex Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Developing in non-league
Scott’s path in football has been far from a conventional one.
He was part of over four years in Southampton’s youth system starting at 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.
Before he turned 13, though, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth gave him an opportunity and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Rather, he chose to stay on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my mates at the weekend because I had missed almost several years of doing that. Getting that little bit of childhood again was something I really needed.
“Building a bit of confidence by returning and taking part in local football was huge for me. It was probably the most crucial factors that led me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he was introduced as a second-half replacement in their league match at Phoenix Sports.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could include him in the team because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss the coach stated at the time.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Second-tier club the Robins – chaired by islander their owner – had been tracking his early progress after an impressive beginning in adult football and gave him a trial in December 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled Scott. “Day one I joined the under-18s, the next day I was with the first team, which was a complete shock.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in London, returned home and by Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a three goals. It was almost a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
Within a year and a half, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus Luton.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while still a teenager, frequently being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his versatility and flexibility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
With his ability to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to City and national team playmaker Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the EFL Championship’s best young player honour, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was named Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I think he’ll play for his country and I’m sure he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, Scott’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated last year.
Less than three months after, he joined the Cherries for a reported fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his big move
The midfielder experienced a challenging debut campaign with the club, having to wait until the autumn to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His second campaign was equally disrupted, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for almost four months.
“There was 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 yet another setback and it was shaping up as a pretty bad year for the first half.”
But he was then selected by the national team for the U21 Euros – and succeeded in regain fitness in time.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six games as they claimed victory in the tournament in the host nation, developing a formidable partnership in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who himself has excelled for the first team with Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun the current campaign equally as strongly for Bournemouth, playing in every game to help them to the top five in the standings.
“To play for the England senior team would be among the most special moments of my career,” Scott said earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I must keep progressing as a player, keep enjoying football, improving every day, and with luck I impress the national coach and get my chance.”
