Back when the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut against Phoenix Sports in front of just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
That prediction proved to be a bit of an underestimation.
Now aged 22 and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the playmaker has just received his maiden call-up to the senior Three Lions team.
His ascent from eighth-tier talent to potential international star is a true blast from the past, a story seldom told in the modern era.
Next stop? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a professional football player, let alone featuring in the top division and playing for the national team too,” the player stated previously.
“It has been a incredible five or six years of my life, and things have transformed completely 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 not been a typical one.
He was part of four and a half years in the Saints’ youth system from the age of eight, leaving school early every Friday to fly from his island home on Guernsey to the south coast so he could train and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to his 13th birthday, though, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth were willing to offer Scott an opportunity and he remained with them for a while, but, as he later admitted, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Rather, he chose to remain on the island and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over weekly was starting to feel a bit too much,” he explained.
“All I desired to chill at home with my friends at weekends because I missed almost several years of that experience. Getting that slice of childhood back was a thing I definitely required.
“Building a bit of confidence by coming back and taking part in island football was huge for me. It was perhaps one of the most important factors that got me to this point.”
At the age of 16, Scott made history as the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he was introduced as a second-half replacement in their league match at the opposition.
“I had sleepless nights because I was trying to work out how I could get him in the side because his talent is obvious,” manager the coach commented back then.
“People have witnessed that – his possession of the ball is outstanding, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Championship side the Robins – chaired by Guernsey resident Steve Lansdown – had been tracking Scott’s early progress after an impressive beginning in adult football and gave him a try-out in December 2019.
“It was chaos,” recalled Scott. “The first day I trained with the under-18s, the second day I trained with the senior squad, which was a total shock.
“Midweek I played for his local side in London, returned home and on the Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a hat-trick. It was almost a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a deal.”
In just 18 months, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his senior debut against the Hatters.
Scott went on to make eighty-three league appearances for the club while still a teenager, often being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally further forward as a number 10 – such was his versatility and versatility. Despite his youth and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his ability to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to City and England playmaker Grealish.
By the conclusion of the 2022-23 season he claimed the EFL Championship’s best young player honour, was chosen in the league’s team of the year and was voted the club’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for England and I’m sure he will progress to the top of the sport,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s boss at Ashton Gate, remarked last year.
Within three months after, he joined Bournemouth for a understood fee of £25m.
Securing his major transfer
The midfielder endured a difficult first season with the club, having to wait until October to make his Premier League debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being in and out of the starting XI.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for nearly several months.
“I had a decent run at the end of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained Scott.
“It was almost another setback and the year was shaping up as a pretty bad year for the first half.”
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 went on to win the tournament in the host nation, forming a formidable partnership in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who himself has excelled for the senior side under Thomas Tuchel.
And he has begun this season equally as impressively for his club, featuring in every game to help them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my career,” the player stated recently.
“It’s down to me, I must keep progressing as a footballer, maintain my love for football, getting better every day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
