I used to cry at the thought of playing football – now I’m a Premier League star known as the ‘Guernsey Grealish’
ALEX SCOTT is a Guernsey boy living the Premier League dream.
Bournemouth’s 21-year-old midfielder has had a unique rise to the top, having not wanted to play football and being axed by Prem academies.
RexAlex Scott stars in Bournemouth’s midfield and has featured in every game so far this season[/caption]
GettyHe is capped four times by England Under-21s[/caption]
GettyPep Guardiola has compared Scott to Jack Grealish[/caption]
Not long ago, Scott saw playing as a frustrating distraction from a limited social life that included nailing scooter tricks at a local skate park with his friends.
And when football did get in the way, the youngster was often left in tears.
Until, that is, he moved from non-league Guernsey to Bristol City in January 2020 aged 16 and the scooter was “put to one side”.
Cherries boss Andoni Iraola will be pleased to hear that, especially after forking out £25million in August 2023.
But Scott’s scootering obsession came during a tough time in his early footballing career.
He was let go by the Southampton and Bournemouth academies by the age of 14 and forced into an “embarrassing” return to his Channel Island birthplace.
Scott admitted: “Once you get released, it’s like, where do you go from here?
“It is embarrassing. Back home, I was the kid that was going to be pro.
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“It’s tough to get back into academy football but I wasn’t playing well and I wasn’t enjoying it. I lost the love.
“I never really had a life outside of football. From the age of eight to 14, I would be at school then flying over every weekend and playing games in the UK and then back to school.
“When I got home I was more interested in other hobbies. I was big on scootering, at the skate park.
“It was ahead of football for about a year, two years. Even when I was playing for Bournemouth at 13, I never wanted to go.
“There were times when my mum and dad would say, ‘Right, you can take your scooter’. I would go to the skate park and then play football on the Sunday.
“I didn’t want to tell my dad I wanted to scooter instead of football.
“He saw it as a missed opportunity because he knew the talent I had.
“It was hard. The number of times I would just be in my room crying, knowing I’d got to fly over to play football.”
But then Scott says something just “clicked” between the ages of 14 and 16.
He added: “I had a few years playing football at home in Guernsey, getting my confidence back, spending time with my friends. I enjoyed growing up as a normal kid.
“And then when I was 16, I got the chance to go back to England and it was a dead cert that I would try the career again. It’s been a whirlwind. I never expected any of this to happen.”
Others would disagree, Guernsey manager Tony Vance saw the potential, making him the club’s youngest ever player in the Isthmian League as a 16-year-old.
Bristol City then took a punt after watching Scott score a hat-trick in a trial match against their Under-17s and Ashton Gate boss Nigel Pearson handed the teenager his first Championship start in May 2021.
Following a 3-0 FA Cup defeat by Manchester City in February 2023, Pep Guardiola labelled him an “unbelievable player” and the “Guernsey Grealish” nickname stuck — teeing up Scott’s Prem switch to Bournemouth just six months later.
Since then, however Scott’s mentality has continued to be tested. He was sidelined with a knee injury for 12 weeks after signing and missed another seven weeks with an ligament strain.
The England Under-21 international — who idolises Jude Bellingham — admitted: “That second injury was the hardest time I have had in football.”
Unsurprisingly, though, he has bounced back and come off the bench in all seven of Bournemouth’s Premier League games this term.
He said: “There are times when I’m not starting and it’s hard, keeping that confidence. But I like to watch clips of myself to remind myself what I can do.
“I’m always going to be grounded and humble.”
