Back when Alex Scott made his Guernsey debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
This prediction proved to be something of an understatement.
Today 22 years old and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the playmaker has earned his maiden call-up to the senior Three Lions squad.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential England player is a proper throwback, a story rarely seen in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a pro footballer, let alone playing in the Premier League and representing the national team too,” Scott said in a recent interview.
“It has been a incredible five or six years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for myself and my family.”
So how did Scott, known fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up here?
Developing in the lower tiers
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 each Friday to fly from his island home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could train and play for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to he turned 13, however, they decided to let him go. The Cherries gave him an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he opted to stay on the island and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling every week was starting to feel overwhelming,” he explained.
“All I desired to chill at my home with my mates at the weekend because I missed nearly four and a half years of that experience. To have that slice of youth back was something I really needed.
“Building a bit of confidence by returning and playing local football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps the most crucial factors that led me to this point.”
When he was just 16, the teenager made history as the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half substitute in their Isthmian League fixture 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,” manager Tony Vance commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the way he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side the Robins – chaired by Guernsey resident their owner – had been tracking his development after an impressive beginning in adult football and arranged a trial in December 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled the player. “The first day I trained with the youth team, the next day I trained with the senior squad, which was a total shock.
“On the Wednesday I featured for Guernsey FC in London, returned home and on the Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a three goals. It was almost a certainty for me to sign a deal.”
Within a year and a half, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut against Luton.
Scott went on to make 83 league outings for the club while still a teenager, often being used as a wing-back – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his skill to carry the ball forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and England attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s young player of the season honour, was selected in the division’s team of the year and was voted the club’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I believe he’ll play for his country and I’m sure he will progress to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at the club, stated last year.
Less than three months after, he joined the Cherries for a understood fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his big move
The midfielder experienced a difficult debut campaign with the club, having to wait until the autumn to earn his top-flight 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 surgery which ruled him out for nearly several months.
“I had a decent run at the close of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“That felt like almost 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 U21 Euros – and succeeded in regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six games as they went on to win the tournament in Slovakia, developing a strong understanding in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has excelled for the senior side under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has started this season equally as strongly for his club, playing in all matches to guide them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the England senior team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” the player stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must keep progressing as a player, keep enjoying football, getting better day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
