Back when the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 spectators in 2019, his coach back then assured, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This prediction proved to be a bit of an understatement.
Today aged 22 and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has just received his first summons to the full Three Lions squad.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to possible international star is a true throwback, a story rarely told in the modern era.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of making it as a pro footballer, let alone playing in the Premier League and playing for the national team too,” the player said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a crazy half-dozen years of my life, and things have transformed completely for me and my family.”
But how did Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself at this level?
Learning in non-league
Scott’s path in football has been far from a conventional one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, leaving school early each Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to he turned 13, though, they released him. The Cherries were willing to offer Scott an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind was not in it.
Rather, he opted to remain on the island and play for his local team.
“My form had dipped and flying over every week was becoming overwhelming,” he recalled.
“I just wanted to chill at my home with my friends at weekends because I missed nearly several years of doing that. Getting that little bit of youth back was a thing I definitely needed.
“Building some self-belief by coming back and taking part in local football was huge for me. It was perhaps one of the most important factors that led me where I am today.”
When he was just 16, the teenager made history as the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he was introduced as a second-half replacement in their league match at Phoenix Sports.
“I’ve been having trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the side because his talent is obvious,” manager Tony Vance commented back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the manner he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the pro ranks
Second-tier club Bristol City – chaired by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been monitoring Scott’s development after an promising beginning in adult football and arranged a trial in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” recalled Scott. “The first day I joined the under-18s, the next day I trained with the first team, which was a complete shock.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in the capital, travelled back and on the Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
Within 18 months, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut against Luton.
Scott made 83 league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, frequently being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally further forward as a number 10 – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his skill to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and England playmaker Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 campaign he won the EFL Championship’s young player of the season award, was chosen in the division’s team of the year and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I think he will represent his country and I’m sure he will progress to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, Scott’s boss at the club, stated last year.
Less than 90 days later, he joined the Cherries for a understood transfer fee of £25m.
Getting his major transfer
Scott experienced a difficult debut campaign with the club, having to wait until the autumn to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then being inconsistent of the starting XI.
His second campaign was just as disrupted, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for nearly four months.
“I had a decent run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.
“It was almost another setback and it was shaping up as quite a terrible start for the first half.”
But he was then called up by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in regain fitness in time.
He started five of the England U21s’ six games as they went on to win the competition in Slovakia, developing a formidable partnership in midfield with his teammate, who himself has excelled for the senior side under the national coach.
And he has started the current campaign equally as impressively for Bournemouth, playing in every game to help them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the national team would be among the most special moments of my career,” Scott said recently.
“It’s down to me, I must continue developing as a player, keep enjoying football, improving every day, and with luck I impress the England manager and get my chance.”
