‘This kid is something else’

Lawrence Ostlere reports on the Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott's ascent from Guernsey FC to an England call-up

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Alex Scott made his Guernsey FC debut as a second-half substitute, with an adult shirt flapping around his 16-year-old frame like a bedsheet.

The opposition's central midfielder, who had tattoos up to his neck and a glint in his eye as the teenager ran on to the pitch, welcomed him to non-league with a shove. But before he could put the boot in, Scott had swivelled and taken the ball somewhere else. This was Scott's gift - to receive it in tight spaces with ease and make opponents look foolish. Most players of his age and talent were in academies playing on green carpets at high-tech training centres, while Scott was learning to survive in the Isthmian League South East, the eighth tier of English men's football, where midfield was essentially an escape room of sharp elbows and metal studs.

Vance watched Scott grow from a five-year-old boy to a professional player, first at Bristol City as a teenager - who, after an FA Cup game, Pep Guardiola called “unbelievable” - and now sparkling at Bournemouth in the Premier League. He believes that six-month period playing men's football was the making of him. Now, aged 22, Scott has earned his first senior England call-up.