When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
This statement proved to be something of an underestimation.
Today 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 non-league prodigy to potential international star is a proper throwback, a journey rarely told in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a pro footballer, never mind playing in the Premier League and representing the national team as well,” Scott stated previously.
“It’s been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and things have changed drastically for myself and my loved ones.”
So how did Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up here?
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’ youth system from the age of eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his island home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could attend training and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to he turned 13, though, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Instead, he opted to remain on Guernsey and turn out for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he explained.
“I just wanted to chill at my home with my mates at the weekend because I missed nearly several years of doing that. To have that little bit of youth back was something I really required.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by coming back and taking part in local football was huge for me. It was perhaps the most crucial things that led me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he was introduced as a 57th-minute replacement in their league match at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the team because his talent is obvious,” Guernsey boss the coach stated back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is outstanding, the manner he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by islander their owner – had been tracking Scott’s early progress after an impressive beginning in men’s football and arranged a trial in late 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” said the player. “The first day I trained with the under-18s, the next day I was with the first team, which was a total surprise.
“On the Wednesday I featured for his local side in London, returned home and by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and netted a hat-trick. From that point a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
Within a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut against Luton.
He went on to make 83 league outings for the club while still a teenager, often being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – such was his adaptability and versatility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was their best player.
With his ability to drive the ball forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to City and national team playmaker Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s best young player award, was selected in the league’s team of the year and was named the club’s top player and top youngster.
“No doubt, I think he will represent his country and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s boss at the club, stated previously.
Within 90 days after, he signed for the Cherries for a reported fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his major transfer
The midfielder experienced a difficult debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until the autumn 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 sidelined him for nearly four months.
“There was quite a good run at the end of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” said he.
“That felt like yet another setback and it was turning out to be a pretty bad year for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in get himself fit for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they claimed victory in the competition in the host nation, forming a formidable understanding in midfield with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has excelled for the first team with the national coach.
And he has started this season 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 moments of my life,” Scott stated recently.
“It’s down to me, I must continue developing as a footballer, keep enjoying the game, getting better day on day, and hopefully I impress the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
