Back when the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his coach back then assured, “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 the Cherries, the playmaker has just received his maiden summons to the full England team.
His rise from eighth-tier talent to possible international star is a true blast from the past, a story rarely told in the modern era.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“In my mind, there was zero possibility of making it as a professional football player, never mind playing in the Premier League and representing the national team too,” the player said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a incredible five or six years of my life, and things have changed drastically for me and my loved ones.”
So in what way 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 been far from a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in Southampton’s academy setup from the age of eight, skipping school each Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the south coast so he could attend training and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Prior to his 13th birthday, however, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth gave Scott an option and he was on the Cherries’ books for a time, but, as he later admitted, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he opted to stay on Guernsey and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and traveling weekly was starting to feel overwhelming,” he recalled.
“All I desired to relax at my home with my mates at the weekend because I missed almost four and a half years of doing that. To have that little bit of youth again was something I really required.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by coming back and playing local football was massive for me. It was perhaps the most crucial factors that got me to this point.”
When he was just 16, the teenager became the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a second-half substitute in their Isthmian League match at Phoenix Sports.
“I had sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could include him in the side because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss the coach stated at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the way he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Second-tier club the Robins – owned by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been tracking his development after an promising start in adult football and gave him a try-out in December 2019.
“It was chaos,” said the player. “The first day I trained with the under-18s, the next day I trained with the senior squad, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in London, travelled back and by Friday, I played for Bristol City Under-18s and scored a three goals. From that point a done deal for me to sign a contract.”
In just 18 months, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was making his first-team debut against Luton.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, often being used as a wing-back – and occasionally in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and flexibility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was the standout performer.
Thanks to his ability to drive the ball forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he earned the nickname ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and England playmaker Jack Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he won the EFL Championship’s best young player award, was selected in the league’s best XI and was named Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“No doubt, I think he will represent England and I think he’ll go on to the pinnacle of the sport,” his former manager, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, stated previously.
Within 90 days after, he signed for the Cherries for a reported transfer fee of £25m.
Securing his major transfer
The midfielder endured a challenging first season with the Cherries, having to wait until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His second campaign was equally disrupted, this time by a knee operation which ruled him out for almost several months.
“There was quite a good run at the end of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” said Scott.
“That felt like yet another setback and the year was turning out to be a pretty bad year for the first half.”
But he was then called up by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and managed to get himself fit in time.
He went on to start five of the Young Lions’ six matches as they went on to win the competition in the host nation, developing a formidable understanding in the middle with his teammate, who himself has gone on to impress for the first team under 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 national team would be among the most special moments of my career,” Scott stated earlier this season.
“It’s down to me, I’ve got to keep progressing as a player, maintain my love for the game, getting better every day, and with luck I impress the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
