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When Alex Scott stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”

This prediction turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.

Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the midfielder has just received his first summons to the senior Three Lions team.

His rise from eighth-tier talent to possible international star is a proper throwback, a story seldom told in the modern era.

What’s next? A major tournament?

“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, let alone featuring in the Premier League and playing for England too,” the player said previously.

“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have transformed drastically for myself and my family.”

But how did Alex Scott, known fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?

Learning in the lower tiers

His football journey has not been a typical one.

He spent four and a half years in the Saints’ youth system from the age of eight, leaving school early each Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and feature for the club’s academy sides.

Before he turned 13, however, they released him. Bournemouth were willing to offer him an option and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.

Instead, he opted to stay on Guernsey and turn out for his local team.

“My form had dipped and flying over every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he explained.

“All I desired to chill at home with my mates at weekends because I missed almost several years of that experience. To have that little bit of youth again was something I really required.

“Building a bit of confidence by coming back and taking part in local football was massive for me. It was perhaps one of the most important factors that led me where I am today.”

At the age of 16, Scott made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a second-half substitute in their Isthmian League match at Phoenix Sports.

“I had sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the team because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss the coach commented at the time.

“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the way he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”

Making a comeback to the professional game

Championship side the Robins – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been monitoring Scott’s early progress after an impressive beginning in adult football and arranged a trial in December 2019.

“It was chaos,” said the player. “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 Guernsey FC in the capital, travelled back and by Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and netted a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”

Within a year and a half, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut against the Hatters.

He made eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while still a teenager, often being deployed as a wide defender – and sometimes further forward as a attacking midfielder – such was his adaptability and flexibility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was their best player.

With his ability to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and England playmaker Jack Grealish.

At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he claimed the second tier’s best young player award, was selected in the league’s best XI and was voted the club’s top player and top youngster.

“No doubt, I think he’ll play for his country and I’m sure he will progress to the top of the game,” his former manager, the player’s manager at the club, stated last year.

Within 90 days later, he signed for Bournemouth for a reported transfer fee of £25m.

Securing his major transfer

Scott endured a challenging debut campaign with the club, having to wait until October to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being in and out of the starting XI.

His second campaign was equally affected, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for nearly several months.

“There was quite a good run at the close of last season, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.

“It was yet another obstacle and it was turning out to be quite a terrible year for the first five months.”

But he was then called up by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to regain fitness in time.

He started five of the Young Lions’ six games as they claimed victory in the tournament in Slovakia, forming a formidable understanding in the middle with his teammate, who in turn has gone on to impress for the first team with the national coach.

And he has started the current campaign equally as impressively for his club, playing in all matches to help them to the top five in the table.

“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my career,” the player stated recently.

“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a player, maintain my love for football, improving day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and get my chance.”