Back when the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager at the time assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
That statement proved to be something of an underestimation.
Today 22 years old and a Premier League regular with the Cherries, the playmaker has earned his first summons to the full Three Lions squad.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to possible England player is a proper throwback, a journey seldom told in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was no chance of making it as a professional football player, never mind featuring in the top division and playing for England too,” the player stated in a recent interview.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have transformed drastically for myself and my family.”
So how did Scott, known fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up here?
Learning in non-league
Scott’s 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 travel by air from his island home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could train and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to he turned 13, however, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer him an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he opted to remain on Guernsey and turn out for his local team.
“My form had dipped and traveling every week was becoming overwhelming,” he explained.
“All I desired to chill at home with my mates at the weekend because I missed almost four and a half years of doing that. To have that little bit of youth back was something I definitely needed.
“Building a bit of confidence by coming back and playing local football was massive for me. It was probably the most crucial things that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he came on 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 side because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Second-tier club Bristol City – owned by islander Steve Lansdown – had been tracking Scott’s development after an impressive beginning in adult football and arranged a trial in December 2019.
“The whole experience 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 complete surprise.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in the capital, travelled back and by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a three goals. From that point a done deal for me to sign a contract.”
Within a year and a half, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut against Luton.
Scott made eighty-three league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, frequently being used as a wing-back – and sometimes further forward as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his versatility and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
With his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to City and national team attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s young player of the season honour, was chosen in the league’s team of the year and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I believe he will represent England and I think he will progress to the top of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at the club, stated last year.
Less than 90 days later, he signed for Bournemouth for a reported fee of £25m.
Securing his big move
The midfielder endured a difficult debut campaign with the club, waiting until the autumn to make his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself inconsistent of the starting XI.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for almost four months.
“There was a decent run at the close of last season, which was good to have, then I broke my jaw,” said he.
“It was yet another setback and it was turning out to be a pretty bad start for the first five months.”
But he was then selected 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 went on to win the competition in the host nation, forming a strong understanding in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who himself has excelled for the first team under the national coach.
And he has begun the current campaign equally as strongly for his club, playing in all matches to guide them to fifth in the standings.
“Representing the England senior team would be one of the proudest moments of my life,” the player said earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a player, maintain my love for football, improving every day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
