When the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
That statement turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.
Today aged 22 and an established top-flight player with the Cherries, the midfielder has earned his maiden call-up to the senior England squad.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to possible international star is a true blast from the past, a journey seldom told in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of making it as a professional football player, never mind playing in the Premier League and representing England as well,” Scott stated previously.
“It has been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have transformed drastically for me and my family.”
But how did Alex Scott, known fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up here?
Developing in the lower tiers
Scott’s football journey has been far from a conventional one.
He was part of over four years in Southampton’s youth system from the age of eight, skipping school every Friday to travel by air from his home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to he turned 13, though, they released him. The Cherries gave Scott an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart was not in it.
Rather, he opted to stay on the island and play for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling weekly was starting to feel a bit too much,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at home with my friends at weekends because I had missed nearly four and a half years of that experience. Getting that slice of youth back was a thing I really required.
“Building a bit of self-belief by coming back and taking part in island football was huge for me. That proved to be probably the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
At the age of 16, the teenager became the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a 57th-minute replacement in their league match at the opposition.
“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was figuring out how I could get him in the team because he’s that good,” manager the coach stated back then.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side the Robins – owned by islander Steve Lansdown – had been tracking his development after an impressive beginning in men’s football and gave him a trial in late 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled Scott. “The first day I joined the under-18s, the second day I was with the first team, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in London, travelled back and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and netted a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
In just 18 months, still well before his 18th birthday, he was earning his senior debut against Luton.
Scott made eighty-three league outings for the club while still a teenager, often being used as a wide defender – and sometimes in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his versatility and flexibility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his skill to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and England attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s best young player award, was selected in the division’s best XI and was named Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I think he’ll play for his country and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, the player’s boss at the club, stated last year.
Less than 90 days later, he signed for the Cherries for a understood transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his big move
The midfielder endured a challenging debut campaign with the club, having to wait until the autumn to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in pre-season, and then finding himself in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for almost several months.
“There was a decent run at the end of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.
“That felt like yet another obstacle and it was turning out to be a pretty bad year for the first half.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they claimed victory in the competition in the host nation, forming a strong partnership in midfield with his teammate, who himself has excelled for the first team under the national coach.
And he has started the current campaign just as impressively for his club, playing in all matches to guide them to the top five in the table.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” Scott said earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to continue developing as a footballer, keep enjoying football, getting better day on day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and get my chance.”
