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Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “there’s more to come from this boy.”

This prediction proved to be something of an underestimation.

Now 22 years old and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has just received his first summons to the senior Three Lions team.

His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a proper blast from the past, a journey seldom told in the modern era.

What’s next? A major tournament?

“In my mind, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, let alone featuring in the Premier League and playing for England as well,” the player stated in a recent interview.

“It’s been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and things have changed completely for myself and my family.”

So in what way did Alex Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself at this level?

Developing in the lower tiers

His football journey has been far from a conventional one.

He spent over four years in Southampton’s academy setup from the age of eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his island home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.

Prior to he turned 13, though, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth were willing to offer Scott 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 play for his local team.

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

“All I desired to chill at home with my mates at weekends because I had missed nearly several years of that experience. To have that little bit of childhood again was a thing I definitely required.

“To gain some self-belief by returning and taking part in island football was massive for me. That proved to be probably the most crucial things that got me to this point.”

When he was just 16, Scott made history as the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a 57th-minute replacement 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 team because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss the coach stated at the time.

“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the manner he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”

Returning to the pro ranks

Championship side Bristol City – chaired by Guernsey resident their owner – had been monitoring his early progress 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 trained with the first team, which was a complete shock.

“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in London, returned home and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and scored a three goals. It was almost a certainty for me to sign a contract.”

In just a year and a half, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut versus the Hatters.

He made 83 league outings for the Robins while in his teens, often being deployed as a wing-back – and sometimes further forward as a number 10 – such was his adaptability and flexibility. Despite his youth 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 earned the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a nod to Manchester City and national team playmaker Grealish.

At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s young player of the season award, was chosen in the division’s team of the year and was named Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.

“Without question, I believe he’ll play for his country and I think he’ll go on to the top of the sport,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked previously.

Less than three months later, he signed for the Cherries for a understood fee of £25m.

Securing his major transfer

Scott endured a challenging first season with the Cherries, having to wait until October to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in pre-season, and then finding himself in and out of the team.

His second campaign was equally affected, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for almost four months.

“I had a decent run at the end of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” said he.

“That felt like almost another setback and the year was shaping up as a pretty bad start for the first five months.”

But he was then called up by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to regain fitness for the tournament.

He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six matches as they claimed victory in the tournament in the host nation, developing a formidable understanding in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has gone on to impress for the senior side with Thomas Tuchel.

And he has begun the current campaign equally as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in every game to help them to fifth in the table.

“Representing the England senior team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” the player stated recently.

“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a player, maintain my love for the game, getting better every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the England manager and earn an opportunity.”