Back when the young midfielder made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager back then assured, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This prediction proved to be a bit of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the midfielder has just received his maiden summons to the full Three Lions squad.
His rise from non-league prodigy to possible England player is a proper blast from the past, a journey rarely seen in the modern era.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was no chance of becoming a pro footballer, let alone playing in the Premier League and representing the national team as well,” Scott said previously.
“It’s been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have changed drastically for myself and my loved ones.”
But how did Scott, referred to affectionately as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up at this level?
Developing in the lower tiers
Scott’s football journey has not been a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in the Saints’ youth system starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the mainland so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to his 13th birthday, however, they decided to let him go. The Cherries were willing to offer Scott an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart was not in it.
Instead, he chose to stay on the island and turn out for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over every week was becoming a bit too much,” he explained.
“I just wanted to chill at my home with my friends at weekends because I had missed nearly several years of doing that. To have that slice of childhood back was something I definitely needed.
“Building some self-belief by returning and playing island football was massive for me. It was perhaps one of the most important things that got me to this point.”
At the age of 16, Scott became the youngest player in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half substitute in their league fixture at the opposition.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the side because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss the coach commented back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the way he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side the Robins – chaired by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been tracking his early progress after an promising start in adult football and gave him a try-out in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” said Scott. “Day one I joined the youth team, the next day I trained with the senior squad, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I played for Guernsey FC in the capital, travelled back and by Friday, I took the field for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to sign a contract.”
In just 18 months, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut versus the Hatters.
He went on to make 83 league appearances for the club while in his teens, often being deployed as a wing-back – and sometimes further forward as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and versatility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his ability 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 Manchester City and England playmaker Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he claimed the EFL Championship’s best young player award, was selected in the league’s best XI and was voted the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I think he will represent England and I’m sure he will progress to the top of the game,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked last year.
Within 90 days after, he joined Bournemouth for a understood fee of £25m.
Getting his big move
The midfielder experienced a challenging debut campaign with the club, waiting until October to earn his top-flight debut after a knee injury in the summer, and then finding himself in and out of the starting XI.
His second campaign was equally disrupted, this time by a surgery which sidelined him for almost four months.
“There was a decent run at the close of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained Scott.
“It was yet another setback and the year was turning out to be a pretty bad start for the first five months.”
But he was then called up by England for the U21 Euros – and succeeded in regain fitness for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the competition in the host nation, forming a formidable partnership in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has excelled for the senior side under the national coach.
And he has started this season just as impressively for his club, playing in all matches to guide them to the top five in the table.
“Representing the national team would be among the most special occasions of my life,” the player stated recently.
“It’s down to me, I must keep progressing as a footballer, keep enjoying the game, improving every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and get my chance.”
