When the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then assured, “we haven’t seen the best from this youngster.”
This prediction proved to be something of an underestimation.
Today aged 22 and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his first summons to the senior Three Lions squad.
His rise from non-league prodigy to potential international star is a proper throwback, a story rarely told in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of becoming a pro footballer, let alone featuring in the Premier League and representing the national team too,” the player said previously.
“It has been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have changed completely for me and my family.”
So in what way did Scott, known fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, end up here?
Developing in the lower tiers
His path in football has been far from a conventional one.
He was part of four and a half years in Southampton’s academy setup starting at eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his home on the Channel Island to the south coast so he could attend training and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before he turned 13, however, they decided to let him go. The Cherries gave him an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, as he later admitted, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he chose to remain on the island and play for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over weekly was becoming overwhelming,” he explained.
“All I desired to chill at my home with my friends at weekends because I had missed almost four and a half years of that experience. To have that little bit of youth back was a thing I really needed.
“Building some self-belief by coming back and playing island football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
At the age of 16, the teenager became the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records 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.
“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 the Robins – owned by islander their owner – had been tracking his development after an promising start in adult football and arranged a try-out in late 2019.
“It was chaos,” said the player. “Day one I trained with the youth team, the second day I was with the first team, which was a total shock.
“On the Wednesday I played for his local side in London, travelled back and on the Friday, I played for the youth team and netted a three goals. From that point a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
In just a year and a half, still well before his 18th birthday, he was making his senior debut against Luton.
Scott went on to make 83 league appearances for the Robins while in his teens, frequently being deployed as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a number 10 – such was his versatility and flexibility. Despite his youth and not in his natural role he was their best player.
Thanks to his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and England attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he claimed the EFL Championship’s young player of the season honour, was selected in the league’s best XI and was named the club’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for England and I’m sure he will progress to the top of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at the club, remarked last year.
Less than 90 days later, he joined Bournemouth for a reported transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Getting his major transfer
The midfielder experienced a difficult first season with the club, having to wait until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then finding himself inconsistent of the team.
His second campaign was just as affected, this time by a knee operation which ruled him out for almost 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,” said he.
“That felt like yet another setback and the year 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 get himself fit for the tournament.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six games as they went on to win the tournament in Slovakia, developing a formidable understanding in midfield with his teammate, who in turn has gone on to impress for the senior side under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun this season equally as impressively for his club, featuring in every game to guide them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the England senior team would be among the most special moments of my life,” Scott stated recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to keep progressing as a player, keep enjoying football, getting better day on day, and with luck I impress the national coach and get my chance.”
