Back when the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his local team debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then assured, “there’s more to come from this boy.”
This statement turned out to be something of an understatement.
Today 22 years old and an established top-flight player with Bournemouth, the midfielder has earned his first call-up to the senior Three Lions team.
His rise from non-league prodigy to potential international star is a proper blast from the past, a story seldom seen in the modern era.
Next stop? The World Cup?
“Back then, there was no chance of becoming a professional football player, let alone playing in the top division and representing England as well,” the player said previously.
“It has been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have transformed completely for myself and my family.”
So how did Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Grealish from Guernsey’, find himself here?
Learning in the lower tiers
Scott’s path in football has not been a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in Southampton’s youth system from the age of eight, leaving school early every Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could train and feature for the club’s academy sides.
Prior to he turned 13, though, they released him. Bournemouth gave him an opportunity and he was on the Cherries’ books for a while, but, by the player’s own admission, his mind wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he chose to stay on the island and turn out for his hometown club.
“I wasn’t playing very well and flying over weekly was starting to feel overwhelming,” he explained.
“I just wanted to relax at home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed nearly several years of doing that. To have that little bit of youth again was a thing I really required.
“Building some confidence by coming back and taking part in island football was huge for me. It was perhaps the most crucial factors that led me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, the teenager became the most youthful appearance-maker in the club’s records when he came on as a 57th-minute substitute in their Isthmian 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,” Guernsey boss the coach commented back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is outstanding, the manner he runs with the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Making a comeback to the pro ranks
Second-tier club Bristol City – chaired by islander Steve Lansdown – had been tracking Scott’s early progress after an promising beginning in adult football and gave him a try-out in late 2019.
“The whole experience was hectic,” recalled Scott. “The first day I joined the youth team, the second day I was with the senior squad, which was a complete surprise.
“Midweek I featured for Guernsey FC in London, travelled back and by Friday, I took the field for the youth team and netted a hat-trick. It was almost a certainty for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just 18 months, still some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his senior debut against Luton.
He went on to make eighty-three league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, frequently being used as a wing-back – and occasionally further forward as a attacking midfielder – such was 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 forward, and with his socks down to his ankles, he picked up the nickname ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a nod to City and national team playmaker Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 season he won the second tier’s best young player honour, was selected in the league’s best XI and was voted the club’s top player and top youngster.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for his country and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the game,” Nigel Pearson, the player’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked last year.
Within three months after, he joined the Cherries for a understood fee of £25m.
Securing his major transfer
Scott experienced a challenging debut campaign with the Cherries, having to wait until October to earn his Premier League debut after a knee injury in pre-season, and then finding himself in and out of the team.
His following season was equally disrupted, this time by a knee operation which ruled him out for almost several months.
“There was a decent run at the close of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I broke my jaw,” said Scott.
“It was yet another obstacle and the year was shaping up as a pretty bad year for the first half.”
But he was then called up by England for the U21 Euros – and managed to regain fitness in time.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six matches as they went on to win the tournament in the host nation, developing a formidable understanding in midfield with Elliot Anderson, 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 his club, playing in every game to help them to fifth in the standings.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” Scott said earlier this season.
“The responsibility is mine, I must keep progressing as a player, maintain my love for the game, getting better day on day, and with luck I impress the national coach and get my chance.”
