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Back when Alex Scott made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”

This prediction proved to be something of an underestimation.

Today 22 years old and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has just received 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 journey rarely told in the modern era.

Next stop? The World Cup?

“Back then, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, never mind playing in the Premier League and playing for England too,” Scott said in a recent interview.

“It has been a incredible five or six years of my life, and circumstances have changed completely for me and my family.”

So in what way did Alex Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, find himself here?

Developing in non-league

His path in football has been far from a typical one.

He spent four and a half years in Southampton’s academy setup from the age of eight, leaving school early each Friday to fly from his home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and play for the Saints’ youth teams.

Prior to he turned 13, however, they released him. Bournemouth gave Scott an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, as he later admitted, his heart was not in it.

Rather, he chose to stay on the island and turn out for his local team.

“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling weekly was becoming a bit too much,” he recalled.

“I just wanted to relax at home with my mates at the weekend because I had missed nearly several years of doing that. To have that slice of youth again was a thing I really needed.

“Building some self-belief by coming back and taking part in island football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps one of the most important factors that led me to this point.”

When he was just 16, the teenager became the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half replacement in their league fixture at Phoenix Sports.

“I’ve been having sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the team because his talent is obvious,” manager the coach stated at the time.

“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”

Making a comeback to the professional game

Second-tier club Bristol City – chaired by islander Steve Lansdown – had been monitoring Scott’s development after an promising start in adult football and gave him a trial in December 2019.

“The whole experience was chaos,” said Scott. “The first day I trained with the youth team, the next day I trained with the first team, which was a complete surprise.

“On the Wednesday I featured for Guernsey FC in the capital, travelled back and by Friday, I played for the youth team and netted a hat-trick. It was almost a done deal for me to sign a contract.”

Within a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was earning his senior debut versus the Hatters.

Scott made eighty-three league outings for the club while in his teens, often being used as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a attacking midfielder – such was his versatility and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was the standout performer.

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

By the conclusion of the 2022-23 season he won the second tier’s best young player honour, was selected in the division’s best XI and was named Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.

“No doubt, I believe he’ll play for his country and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at the club, remarked previously.

Less than three months after, he signed for the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of £25m.

Getting his major transfer

The midfielder endured a challenging debut campaign with the Cherries, having to wait until October to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the team.

His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for nearly four months.

“I had quite a good run at the close of last season, which was good to have, then I fractured my jaw,” said Scott.

“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 U21 Euros – and managed to get himself fit in time.

He started five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the tournament in Slovakia, developing a formidable partnership in midfield with his teammate, who himself has gone on to impress for the first team with Thomas Tuchel.

And he has begun this season equally as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in all matches to help them to fifth in the standings.

“Representing the England senior team would be one of the proudest occasions of my career,” the player stated earlier this season.

“It’s down to me, I must continue developing as a player, keep enjoying football, getting better day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”