When Alex Scott made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his coach at the time assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
That statement turned out to be something of an underestimation.
Today 22 years old and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the midfielder has just received his maiden call-up to the full Three Lions squad.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a true blast from the past, a journey rarely told in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a pro footballer, let alone playing in the Premier League and playing for the national team as well,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for myself and my family.”
But how did Alex Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Learning in the lower tiers
His path in football has been far from a typical one.
He was part of four and a half years in the Saints’ youth system starting at eight, skipping school each Friday to travel by air from his home on Guernsey to the south coast so he could train and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before his 13th birthday, however, they decided to let him go. The Cherries gave him an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he opted to stay on the island and turn out for his local team.
“My form had dipped and traveling every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he recalled.
“All I desired to chill at my home with my mates at the weekend because I had missed almost four and a half years of doing that. Getting that little bit of youth again was a thing I definitely required.
“To gain a bit of confidence by coming back and taking part in island football was massive for me. That proved to be probably one of the most important factors that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott made history as the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a 57th-minute replacement in their Isthmian League match at Phoenix Sports.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the team because his talent is obvious,” manager Tony Vance commented at the time.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is outstanding, the manner he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side Bristol City – owned by islander Steve Lansdown – had been tracking his development after an promising beginning in adult football and arranged a trial in late 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” recalled the player. “The first day I trained with the under-18s, the next day I was with the first team, which was a total shock.
“On the Wednesday I played 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. From that point a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
Within a year and a half, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut against the Hatters.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while in his teens, frequently being used as a wing-back – and sometimes further forward as a number 10 – 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 up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and England playmaker Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign he claimed the second tier’s best young player honour, was chosen in the division’s team of the year and was voted the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I believe he will represent England and I think he will progress to the top of the game,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s boss at Ashton Gate, remarked last year.
Within 90 days after, he signed for the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of £25m.
Securing his big move
The midfielder experienced a difficult first season with the club, waiting until the autumn to earn his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for nearly several months.
“There was a decent run at the end of last season, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“That felt like almost another setback and it was shaping up as quite a terrible year for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by the national team for the U21 Euros – and managed to get himself fit in time.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the competition in Slovakia, developing a formidable partnership in the middle with his teammate, who himself has gone on to impress for the senior side with the national coach.
And he has begun the current campaign just as strongly for his club, playing in all matches to help them to the top five in the standings.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” the player said earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a footballer, keep enjoying the game, getting better every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and get my chance.”
