When the young midfielder made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his coach at the time predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this boy.”
This prediction turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his first summons to the senior Three Lions squad.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to possible international star is a true throwback, a journey seldom told in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, let alone featuring in the top division and playing for England as well,” the player stated previously.
“It’s been a incredible five or six years of my life, and circumstances have changed completely for myself and my loved ones.”
So how did Scott, known fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up at this level?
Learning in non-league
His path in football has been far from a conventional one.
He was part of four and a half years in the Saints’ academy setup starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to travel by air from his home on Guernsey to the south coast so he could attend training and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Before he turned 13, however, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Rather, he opted to remain on Guernsey and turn out for his local team.
“My form had dipped and traveling every week was starting to feel a bit too much,” he explained.
“All I desired to relax at home with my mates at weekends because I had missed almost four and a half years of doing that. Getting that little bit of youth back was a thing I really needed.
“Building some self-belief by returning and taking part in island football was massive for me. That proved to be probably the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
At the age of 16, the teenager became the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he came on as a second-half substitute in their Isthmian League fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I had sleepless nights because I was figuring out how I could include him in the team because his talent is obvious,” Guernsey boss the coach commented at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the way he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Championship side the Robins – owned by Guernsey resident their owner – had been tracking his early progress after an impressive start in adult football and arranged a try-out in December 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the youth team, the second day I was with the senior squad, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I played for Guernsey FC in London, travelled back and by Friday, I played for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. It was almost a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was earning his senior debut versus Luton.
Scott made 83 league outings for the club while still a teenager, often being used as a wide defender – and sometimes in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his ability to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and national team attacking midfielder Jack 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 league’s best XI and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think he will represent England and I think he’ll go on to the top 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 understood transfer fee of £25m.
Securing his big move
The midfielder endured a difficult debut campaign with the club, having to wait until October to earn his top-flight debut after a knee injury in pre-season, and then being inconsistent of the starting XI.
His following season was equally affected, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for nearly four months.
“There was a decent run at the close of last season, which was good to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.
“That felt like yet another setback and it was turning out to be quite a terrible start for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by England for the U21 Euros – and managed to regain fitness for the tournament.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six games as they claimed victory in the competition in Slovakia, developing a strong understanding in midfield with his teammate, who in turn has gone on to impress for the senior side under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has started this season equally as impressively for Bournemouth, playing in all matches to guide them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest moments of my career,” Scott said recently.
“It’s down to me, I must keep progressing as a player, keep enjoying football, improving every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
