Back when the young midfielder made his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before a mere 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
This prediction proved to be a bit of an understatement.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has just received his maiden call-up to the senior England team.
His rise from non-league prodigy to possible international star is a proper throwback, a journey rarely told in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was no chance of making it as a pro footballer, let alone playing in the top division and playing for the national team too,” the player stated previously.
“It’s been a crazy five or six years of my life, and circumstances have changed drastically for myself and my family.”
So how did Scott, known affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up at this level?
Learning in non-league
His football journey has been far from a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, leaving school early each Friday to fly from his island home on Guernsey to the south coast so he could train and play for the club’s academy sides.
Before he turned 13, though, they decided to let him go. The Cherries were willing to offer Scott an opportunity and he remained with them for a time, but, as he later admitted, his heart was not in it.
Rather, he opted to remain on the island and play for his hometown club.
“My form had dipped and traveling every week was starting to feel overwhelming,” he recalled.
“All I desired to chill at home with my friends at weekends because I had missed almost four and a half years of doing that. To have that slice of childhood back was something I really needed.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by coming back and playing local football was huge for me. That proved to be probably the most crucial things that got me to this point.”
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 substitute in their league match 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,” manager Tony Vance commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is outstanding, the way he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by islander their owner – had been monitoring Scott’s development after an impressive beginning in men’s football and gave him a try-out in December 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” said Scott. “The first day I joined the under-18s, the second day I was with the senior squad, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I featured for his local side in the capital, travelled back and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and netted a hat-trick. From that point a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
Within a year and a half, even well before his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut versus the Hatters.
Scott made eighty-three league appearances for the Robins while still a teenager, frequently being used as a wing-back – and occasionally further forward as a number 10 – such was his versatility and flexibility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and England attacking midfielder Jack Grealish.
By the conclusion 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 voted Bristol City’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for his country and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the game,” his former manager, the player’s boss at the club, stated last year.
Within three months after, he joined 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 the autumn to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in pre-season, and then being in and out of the team.
His second campaign was just as affected, this time by a knee operation which sidelined him for nearly four months.
“There was quite a good run at the close of the previous campaign, which was good to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained Scott.
“That felt like yet another setback and the year was shaping up as a pretty bad year for the first half.”
But he was then called up by the national team for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in get himself fit for the tournament.
He started five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the tournament in the host nation, developing a formidable understanding in the middle with his teammate, who in turn has gone on to impress for the senior side with the national coach.
And he has started the current campaign equally as strongly for his club, featuring in every game to help them to fifth in the table.
“Representing the England senior team would be among the most special moments of my career,” the player stated recently.
“It’s down to me, I must continue developing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, improving day on day, and with luck I impress the England manager and earn an opportunity.”
