Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his coach back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
That prediction proved to be something of an underestimation.
Now 22 years old and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the midfielder has just received his maiden summons to the senior Three Lions team.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to possible England player is a proper blast from the past, a journey rarely told in the modern game.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was no chance of making it as a pro footballer, never mind playing in the top division and playing for England too,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It has been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and things have changed completely for myself and my family.”
So how did Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up at this level?
Learning in the lower tiers
Scott’s football journey has been far from a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in the Saints’ academy setup from the age of eight, skipping school each Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could attend training and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Before his 13th birthday, though, they decided to let him go. The Cherries gave him an opportunity and he remained with them for a while, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart was not in it.
Rather, he opted to remain on Guernsey and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling every week was starting to feel overwhelming,” he recalled.
“All I desired to relax at my home with my friends at the weekend because I missed almost several years of that experience. Getting that little bit of youth back was a thing I really required.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by returning and taking part in local football was huge for me. It was probably the most crucial factors that got me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I had trouble sleeping 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 at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the way he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Championship side Bristol City – chaired by islander their owner – had been tracking Scott’s early progress after an impressive beginning in adult football and arranged a trial in late 2019.
“It was chaos,” said Scott. “Day one I joined the under-18s, the next day I trained with the senior squad, which was a total surprise.
“On the Wednesday I played for Guernsey FC in the capital, returned home and by Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a hat-trick. From that point a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
In just a year and a half, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his senior debut versus the Hatters.
He made 83 league outings for the Robins while in his teens, often being used as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a number 10 – such was his versatility and versatility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his ability to carry the ball forward, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to City and England playmaker Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 season he claimed the second tier’s young player of the season honour, was chosen in the league’s best XI and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I believe he’ll play for his country and I’m sure he will progress to the top of the game,” his former manager, Scott’s boss at the club, remarked last year.
Less than 90 days later, he joined the Cherries for a understood transfer fee of £25m.
Getting his big move
Scott experienced a challenging debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until October to make his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then being inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for nearly several months.
“I had quite a good run at the close of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained Scott.
“It was almost another obstacle 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 regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six games as they claimed victory in the competition in the host nation, forming a strong understanding in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who himself has excelled for the senior side with the national coach.
And he has begun this season equally as impressively for his club, playing in all matches to guide them to fifth in the standings.
“Representing the national team would be among the most special occasions of my life,” the player said recently.
“It’s down to me, I must continue developing as a player, maintain my love for the game, improving day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
