Every now and then the wider world of football throws up a feel good story where a lad rather unexpectedly makes the rise from almost nothing in the many tiers of the non league game and goes on to star in the top flight Premier League and then on the international stage, and Alex Scott may be the next one to steal the headlines.
Even fans abroad who study michigan sportsbooks for a heads up on the next big thing may not have spotted Jamie Vardy's dramatic rise in the game and his journey to England star and Premier League winner with Leicester City, and now 22 year old Scott is slowly beginning to follow in his foot steps. Back in 2019 he was making his debut for Guernsey against Phoenix Sports in front of a crowd of just 55 people and his manager at the time said 'there's more to come from this boy' and with hindsight, that was probably a gross understatement.
Roll up to the 2025/26 campaign and the 'Guernsey Grealish' is now a regular in Andoni Iraola's Bournemouth first team after they were so impressed with his performance levels at Bristol City that they were prepared to cough £25 million on the potential that they saw in him back in 2023, and this week he has just been given his first England call up by manager Thomas Tuchel. Eighth tier of non league to an England camp in six years is quite the story by anyone's standards.
But that is not even half the story for the lad who admitted he saw no route into professional football for himself six years ago. Aged eight he found himself in Southampton's Academy set up, but living in Guernsey it meant leaving school early of a Friday to fly to the south coast for weekend training and games and that took its own toll, especially when they eventually released him just ahead of his 13th birthday. Bournemouth, ironically, offered him a place but he admits his heart was no longer in it because of the travelling, so he decided to stay local and try and recapture a little bit of his missed childhood.
It clearly worked for him as at 16 he became the youngest ever player in Guernsey history when he made his debut in the Isthmian League Division One South East game at Phoenix Sports and he just has not looked back since. Within 18 months he was making his senior debut for Bristol City against Luton Town (he made 83 appearances in total for the Robins) and whilst more naturally a No 10, he regularly featured out of position at wing back and still impressed. At the end of the 2022/23 campaign he was crowned the EFL Championship Young Player of the Season, featured in the Team of the Year and took both City's Player and Young Player of the Year awards.
Three months later he secured his mega money move and despite his start to life at Bournemouth being heavily disrupted with two knee injuries (one requiring an operation) and suffering a broken jaw but still found himself in the England Under 21 squad for the European Championships, and with five starts from six games he more than played his part in helping to take them to the final and the trophy itself.
He is definitely one to watch.
