“He’s a Guernsey boy at heart,” says Tony Vance when asked about the most famous of his Guernsey FC players.
Vance gave Alex Scott his debut in the eighth tier of men’s football as a 16-year-old, and less than six years later he is now in the England squad.
It has been a monumental rise for a midfielder who at first struggled juggling life between Guernsey and academy football at Southampton – so much so that he returned home as a young teenager with his dreams of becoming a professional seeminginly drifting away.
But Vance – who has managed Guernsey FC since they were founded in 2011 with the aim of exposing island players to a better standard of football in England – knew he had a star on his hands.
“He was just too good for us,” he told BBC Guernsey after hearing the news of Scott’s first call-up for England’s games with Serbia and Albania later this month.
“He couldn’t start playing with us until he was 16 because of the rules, so we couldn’t wait for him to turn 16.
“When he trained with us it was obvious that he needed to be in the squad, and when he was in the squad it was obvious that he needed to start.”
Scott would only play a handful of games for the Green Lions before being snapped up by Bristol City’s academy. Owner Steve Lansdown lives in Guernsey and Scott has paved the way for a number of other island players to have a chance in the Robins’ academy.
He starred for the Championship side, garnering the nickname of the “Guernsey Grealish” for his playing style and rolled down socks that were similar to the England and Manchester City winger who is currently on loan at Everton.
A big-money move to Bournemouth followed, and after overcoming injuries, Scott has established himself as one of the most promising young English midfielders in the Premier League.
