When Alex Scott made his Guernsey debut against Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 spectators in 2019, his coach back then predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
This statement turned out to be something of an understatement.
Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the playmaker has just received his first summons to the senior England team.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a proper throwback, a journey seldom seen in the modern era.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, never mind featuring in the top division and playing for England as well,” the player said in a recent interview.
“It has been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for me and my loved ones.”
So how did Alex Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself here?
Developing in non-league
His football journey has not been a conventional one.
He was part of four and a half years in the Saints’ youth system starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to fly from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to he turned 13, though, they decided to let him go. The Cherries were willing to offer him an opportunity and he remained with them for a while, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind was not in it.
Rather, he chose to stay on Guernsey and play for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling weekly was starting to feel overwhelming,” he explained.
“All I desired to relax at home with my friends at weekends because I missed nearly four and a half years of doing that. To have that slice of youth again was a thing I definitely required.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by coming back and taking part in local football was massive for me. It was perhaps the most crucial things that led me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half substitute in their Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was figuring out how I could include him in the team because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss the coach commented at the time.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the way he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Second-tier club Bristol City – chaired by islander their owner – had been monitoring Scott’s early progress after an impressive beginning in men’s football and gave him a trial in December 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the under-18s, the second day I was with the first team, which was a complete surprise.
“On the Wednesday I played for Guernsey FC in the capital, travelled back and by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. It was almost a done deal for me to sign a contract.”
In just a year and a half, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his senior debut versus the Hatters.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league outings for the club while in his teens, often being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – such was 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 rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and national team playmaker Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s young player of the season award, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was voted the club’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I believe he’ll play for England and I’m sure he’ll go on to the top of the game,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s boss at the club, remarked previously.
Within three months later, he joined Bournemouth for a reported fee of £25m.
Getting his big move
The midfielder endured a challenging first season with the Cherries, waiting until October to make his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for almost four months.
“I had a decent run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“It was almost another obstacle and the year was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by the national team for the U21 Euros – and managed to regain fitness in time.
He started five of the England U21s’ six games as they went on to win the competition in Slovakia, forming a formidable partnership in midfield with his teammate, who himself has gone on to impress for the first team under the national coach.
And he has begun the current campaign just as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in all matches to help them to the top five in the table.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my life,” Scott said recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a player, keep enjoying the game, getting better every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
