Back when the young midfielder made his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his coach back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This statement turned out to be a bit of an underestimation.
Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has just received his first call-up to the senior Three Lions team.
His ascent from non-league prodigy to potential England player is a proper blast from the past, a story seldom seen in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“In my mind, 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 said in a recent interview.
“It’s been a crazy five or six years of my life, and things have transformed completely for me and my family.”
So in what way did Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up here?
Developing in non-league
His football journey has not been a conventional one.
He was part of over four years in the Saints’ youth system starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to travel by air from his home on Guernsey to the south coast so he could train and feature for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before his 13th birthday, however, they decided to let him go. Bournemouth gave Scott an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, as he later admitted, his heart was not in it.
Instead, he chose to remain on Guernsey and play for his local team.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over weekly was starting to feel a bit too much,” he recalled.
“All I desired to relax at home with my mates at the weekend because I had missed nearly four and a half years of that experience. To have that slice of childhood again was a thing I definitely needed.
“Building some self-belief by returning and taking part in island football was huge for me. It was perhaps one of the most important things that got me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, the teenager became the most youthful appearance-maker in Guernsey’s history when he came on as a second-half replacement in their league fixture at Phoenix Sports.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could get him in the side because his talent is obvious,” manager the coach stated at the time.
“People have witnessed that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he carries the ball, he’s a class act.”
Making a comeback to the professional game
Second-tier club Bristol City – chaired by Guernsey resident their owner – had been monitoring his development after an promising start in adult football and gave him a trial in late 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” recalled Scott. “The first day I joined the youth team, the second day I trained with the senior squad, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I played for his local side in London, travelled back and on the Friday, I took the field for the youth team and scored a three goals. From that point 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, often being deployed as a wide defender – and sometimes in attack as a attacking midfielder – demonstrating his adaptability and flexibility. Even at that young age and playing out of position he was their best player.
Thanks to his skill to carry the ball up the pitch, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘the Guernsey Grealish’, a nod to City and national team playmaker Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the EFL Championship’s best young player award, was chosen in the league’s team of the year and was voted the club’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I believe he will represent his country and I’m sure he will progress to the top of the game,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s boss at Ashton Gate, remarked last year.
Less than 90 days after, he joined Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of £25m.
Securing his major transfer
Scott endured a challenging debut campaign with the Cherries, waiting until the autumn to earn his Premier League 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 ruled him out for almost several months.
“There was quite a good run at the close of last season, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” explained he.
“It was almost another setback and it was turning out to be quite a terrible year for the first half.”
But he was then selected by England for the U21 Euros – and succeeded in regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they claimed victory in the tournament in Slovakia, forming a strong understanding in midfield with his teammate, who in turn has excelled for the senior side with the national coach.
And he has started the current campaign just as impressively for his club, playing in all matches to help them to fifth in the table.
“To play for the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” the player said recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I must continue developing as a player, keep enjoying football, getting better day on day, and with luck I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
