When the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 fans in 2019, his manager at the time predicted, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
That statement turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has earned his maiden summons to the full England team.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to potential international star is a proper throwback, a story seldom seen in the modern era.
What’s next? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was no chance of becoming a professional football player, let alone featuring 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 circumstances have transformed drastically for me and my family.”
So how did Scott, known fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself at this level?
Learning in the lower tiers
His path in football has been far from a typical one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to fly from his home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could attend training and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before he turned 13, though, they decided to let him go. The Cherries were willing to offer him an option and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he opted to remain on the island and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling weekly was becoming a bit too much,” he explained.
“All I desired to relax at my home with my mates at weekends because I missed nearly four and a half years of that experience. Getting that little bit of childhood again was something I really required.
“Building a bit of self-belief by coming back and playing island football was massive for me. It was perhaps one of the most important factors that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, Scott became the youngest player in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a second-half substitute in their Isthmian 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 team because his talent is obvious,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance stated at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is exceptional, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Championship side the Robins – chaired by islander Steve Lansdown – had been tracking his early progress after an impressive beginning in men’s football and gave him a try-out in December 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” recalled the player. “The first day I joined the under-18s, the second day I was with the first team, which was a total shock.
“On the Wednesday I featured for his local side in London, returned home and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and scored a three goals. It was almost a certainty for me to sign a contract.”
In just a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut against the Hatters.
Scott made eighty-three league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, frequently being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and flexibility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was the standout performer.
With his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to 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 division’s best XI and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I believe he will represent his country and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the game,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s manager at the club, stated last year.
Less than 90 days later, he signed for the Cherries for a understood fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his major transfer
Scott experienced a challenging first season with the Cherries, waiting until the autumn to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in pre-season, and then finding himself in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was equally affected, this time by a knee operation which ruled him out for nearly several months.
“There was quite a good run at the end of last season, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“That felt like yet another obstacle and it was turning out to be a pretty bad start for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to regain fitness for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six games as they claimed victory in the competition in the host nation, developing a strong partnership in the middle with his teammate, who in turn has excelled for the senior side with the national coach.
And he has begun this season equally as impressively for Bournemouth, featuring in every game to help them to the top five in the standings.
“To play for the England senior team would be among the most special occasions of my life,” Scott stated recently.
“It’s down to me, I must continue developing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, getting better day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and get my chance.”
