When the young midfielder stepped onto the pitch for his Guernsey debut versus Phoenix Sports before just 55 spectators in 2019, his manager back then predicted, “there’s more to come from this youngster.”
This prediction turned out to be something of an understatement.
Today aged 22 and a Premier League regular with Bournemouth, the playmaker has just received his first summons to the full England squad.
His rise from non-league prodigy to potential international star is a proper throwback, a story seldom told in the modern game.
What’s next? A major tournament?
“Back then, there was zero possibility of becoming a pro footballer, never mind playing in the top division and playing for England as well,” Scott stated previously.
“It’s been a incredible half-dozen years of my life, and circumstances have changed drastically for me and my family.”
But in what way did Scott, referred to fondly as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, end up here?
Learning in non-league
Scott’s football journey has not been a conventional one.
He spent four and a half years in the Saints’ youth system starting at eight, skipping school every Friday to travel by air from his island home on Guernsey to the mainland so he could attend training and play for the Saints’ youth teams.
Before 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 time, but, by the player’s own admission, his heart wasn’t fully committed.
Instead, he opted to remain on Guernsey and turn out for his hometown club.
“My form had dipped and traveling weekly was becoming overwhelming,” he explained.
“All I desired to chill at home with my friends at the weekend because I had missed nearly four and a half years of doing that. Getting that little bit of childhood again was a thing I really needed.
“To gain a bit of self-belief by coming back and playing island football was huge for me. That proved to be perhaps the most crucial things that led me where I am today.”
At the age of 16, the teenager made history as the youngest player in the club’s records when he came on as a 57th-minute replacement in their Isthmian League match at Phoenix Sports.
“I had trouble sleeping because I was figuring out how I could include him in the side because he’s that good,” Guernsey boss Tony Vance commented back then.
“Everyone’s now seen that – his retention of the ball is exceptional, the manner he carries the ball, he’s pure quality.”
Returning to the professional game
Championship side Bristol City – owned by islander Steve Lansdown – had been monitoring Scott’s development after an impressive beginning in men’s football and arranged a try-out in late 2019.
“The whole experience was chaos,” said the player. “The first day I trained with the youth team, the second day I trained with the first team, which was a total surprise.
“Midweek I played for Guernsey FC in London, returned home and on the Friday, I took the field for the youth team and netted a three goals. From that point a done deal for me to put pen to paper on a contract.”
In just 18 months, even some way short of his 18th birthday, he was earning his first-team debut versus Luton.
Scott made eighty-three league outings for the Robins while still a teenager, often being deployed as a wide defender – and occasionally in attack as a number 10 – such was his versatility and versatility. Even at that young age and not in his natural role he was their best player.
With his skill to drive the ball up the pitch, and with his socks rolled down to his ankles, he earned the moniker ‘Guernsey’s Grealish’, a reference to Manchester City and England attacking midfielder Grealish.
At the end of the 2022-23 campaign he won the second tier’s young player of the season honour, was chosen in the league’s team of the year and was voted Bristol City’s player and young player of the Year.
“Without question, I think he’ll play for his country and I think he will progress to the pinnacle of the game,” Nigel Pearson, Scott’s manager at Ashton Gate, remarked previously.
Within 90 days after, he joined Bournemouth for a understood transfer fee of 25 million pounds.
Securing his major transfer
The midfielder experienced a difficult first season with the Cherries, waiting until the autumn to make his top-flight debut after a knee problem in the summer, and then being inconsistent of the team.
His following season was just as disrupted, this time by a surgery which ruled him out for nearly four months.
“I had quite a good run at the close of the previous campaign, which was nice to have, then I fractured my jaw,” explained he.
“It was yet another obstacle and the year was shaping up as quite a terrible year for the first five months.”
But he was then selected by England for the Under-21 European Championships – and succeeded in get himself fit in time.
He went on to start five of the England U21s’ six games as they went on to win the tournament in Slovakia, developing a formidable partnership in the middle with Elliot Anderson, who in turn has gone on to impress for the senior side with the national coach.
And he has begun this season equally as strongly for Bournemouth, playing in all matches to help them to fifth in the table.
“Representing the national team would be one of the proudest occasions of my life,” the player said recently.
“The responsibility is mine, I’ve got to continue developing as a player, keep enjoying the game, getting better day on day, and hopefully I catch the eye of the national coach and earn an opportunity.”
