Back when the young midfielder made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports in front of a mere 55 fans in 2019, his coach back then assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
This statement proved to be something of an understatement.
Now 22 years old and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the midfielder has earned his first summons to the full Three Lions squad.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a proper blast from the past, a journey rarely seen in the modern game.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, never mind featuring in the Premier League and playing for England too,” the player stated previously.
“It has been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for myself and my loved ones.”
But how did Alex Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Learning in the lower tiers
Scott’s football journey has been far from a conventional one.
He spent over four years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, skipping school each Friday to travel by air from his home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before his 13th birthday, though, they released him. The Cherries gave Scott an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Rather, he chose to remain 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 explained.
“I just wanted to relax at home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed nearly four and a half years of doing that. To have that slice of youth back was a thing I really needed.
“To gain a bit of confidence by coming back and playing island football was massive for me. That proved to be probably one of the most important things that got me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, Scott became the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their league match at the opposition.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the side because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss the coach commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the way he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the professional game
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been tracking Scott’s development after an impressive beginning in adult football and gave him a trial in December 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” recalled the player. “The first day I trained with the under-18s, the second day I trained with the first team, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I played for his local side in London, travelled back and by Friday, I played for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just a year and a half, even well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut versus Luton.
He made eighty-three league outings for the Robins while in his teens, often being used as a wide defender – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was their best player.
With his skill to drive the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to Manchester City and national team playmaker Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he claimed the second tier’s young player of the season honour, was selected in the league’s best XI and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I think he will represent his country and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, Scott’s boss at Ashton Gate, remarked last year.
Less than 90 days after, he joined the Cherries for a understood transfer fee of £25m.
Getting his big move
The midfielder endured a difficult first season with the club, waiting until the autumn to earn his top-flight debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then finding himself inconsistent of the team.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a knee operation 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 broke my jaw,” said Scott.
“That felt like almost another setback and it was shaping up as a pretty bad start for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by England for the U21 Euros – and managed to regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six games as they claimed victory in the tournament in Slovakia, developing a strong partnership in midfield 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, featuring in all matches to help them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” the player stated earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, improving every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and get my chance.”
