Back when Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut versus Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That prediction turned out to be a bit of an understatement.
Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his first call-up to the full England squad.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to potential international star is a true throwback, a journey seldom told in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, never mind featuring in the Premier League and representing the national team too,” the player said in a recent interview.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have changed drastically for myself and my loved ones.”
But how did Alex Scott, known fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself at this level?
Learning in non-league
Scott’s path in football has been far from a conventional one.
He was part of four and a half years in the Saints’ youth system from the age of eight, skipping school each Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to he turned 13, however, they decided to let him go. The Cherries were willing to offer Scott an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, 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 traveling every week was starting to feel overwhelming,” he recalled.
“All I desired to chill at my home with my mates at the weekend because I missed nearly four and a half years of doing that. To have that slice of childhood again was something I really needed.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by returning and taking part in island football was huge for me. That proved to be probably the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, the teenager became the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their Isthmian League fixture at the opposition.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the team because his talent is obvious,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the way he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the professional game
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by islander Steve Lansdown – had been monitoring his early progress after an promising beginning in adult football and gave him a try-out in late 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” recalled the player. “Day one I trained with the under-18s, the next day I trained with the first team, which was a complete shock.
“On the Wednesday I played for his local side in the capital, travelled back and on the Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and netted a hat-trick. From that point a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just 18 months, still well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
He made eighty-three league outings for the club while still a teenager, frequently being used as a wing-back – and sometimes further forward as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his versatility and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and national team attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s young player of the season award, was selected in the league’s best XI and was voted Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I think he will represent his country and I’m sure he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked previously.
Within three months after, he joined Bournemouth for a understood fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his big move
The midfielder experienced a challenging first season with the club, having to wait until October to earn his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being in and out of the team.
His second campaign was equally affected, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for almost four months.
“I had a decent run at the close of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained Scott.
“That felt like almost another setback and the year was shaping up as a pretty bad start for the first half.”
But he was then called up by England for the U21 Euros – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He started five of the England U21s’ six games as they claimed victory in the tournament in the host nation, forming a formidable understanding in midfield with his teammate, who in turn has gone on to impress for the first team with Thomas Tuchel.
And he has started this season just as strongly for his club, featuring in every game to help them to the top five in the table.
“Representing the England senior team would be one of the proudest occasions of my career,” the player stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, getting better day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
