Back when the young midfielder made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then assured, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This statement proved to be something of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has just received his first call-up to the full Three Lions squad.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to possible international star is a proper throwback, a story rarely told in the modern era.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, let alone featuring in the Premier League and representing England as well,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a incredible five or six years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for me and my family.”
So in what way did Alex Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up at this level?
Developing in the lower tiers
His path in football has not been a typical one.
He was part of over four years in Southampton’s academy setup from the age of eight, leaving school early each Friday to travel by air from his home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could attend training and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to he turned 13, however, they released him. Bournemouth gave him an option and he remained with them for a while, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart was not in it.
Instead, he chose to remain on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“My form had dipped and flying over every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he explained.
“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.
“Building some confidence by returning and taking part in local football was huge for me. That proved to be probably the most crucial things that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, the teenager made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he came on as a second-half substitute in their league match at Phoenix Sports.
“I had sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the team because his talent is obvious,” manager the coach stated back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side the Robins – chaired by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been tracking his development after an impressive start in men’s football and gave him a try-out in late 2019.
“It was chaos,” said Scott. “Day one I trained with the youth team, the second day I was with the first team, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in the capital, travelled back and by Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a three goals. It was almost a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
Within 18 months, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut against Luton.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league outings for the club while in his teens, often being used as a wing-back – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – such was his adaptability and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
With his ability to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and England attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s best young player award, was selected in the league’s best XI and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I believe he’ll play for his country and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked last year.
Within three months after, he signed for Bournemouth for a reported transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his major transfer
The midfielder endured a challenging debut campaign with the Cherries, having to wait until October to make 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 surgery which ruled him out for nearly four months.
“I had quite a good run at the end of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” said he.
“It was yet another setback and it was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first half.”
But he was then selected by the national team for the U21 Euros – and succeeded in get himself fit for the tournament.
He started five of the England U21s’ six matches as they claimed victory in the competition in Slovakia, forming a formidable partnership in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who himself has excelled for the senior side under the national coach.
And he has started this season equally as strongly for Bournemouth, playing in every game to help them to fifth in the table.
“Representing the England senior team would be among the most special moments of my life,” Scott stated earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for the game, improving every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
