Luke Young (footballer, born 1979)


Luke Paul Young is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender.
Young began his career at Tottenham Hotspur in 1997, before moving to Charlton Athletic in 2001, where he spent six seasons. He then had stints at Middlesbrough and Aston Villa before moving to Queens Park Rangers in 2011. He played 379 career league matches, and all but one of them in the Premier League. Young represented the English national team on seven occasions in 2005.

Early life

Young was born in Harlow, Essex, and has an older brother, Neil Young, who was also a professional footballer and most notably played for Bournemouth. During Neil's testimonial match, he captained the Bournemouth team and brother Luke captained the opponents Charlton Athletic. The final score was a 5–2 win for Charlton.
Luke's 17-year-old half-brother, Andre Young, was found dead on 12 August 2009 whilst on holiday in Malia, Crete, after sustaining head injuries. Young said at the time: "He was a tremendous and talented person and a diligent student and this is such a waste of a promising life." In November 2011, British authorities recorded an open verdict on the cause of death.
Luke's youngest brother, Jake Young, played for West Ham United's academy as a midfielder.

Club career

Tottenham Hotspur

Young started his career with Tottenham Hotspur's youth system and signed a professional contract on 3 July 1997. George Graham gave him his first-team debut on 28 November 1998, playing the full 90 minutes of a 2–1 loss at West Ham, alongside Sol Campbell in the centre of defence. He hit a 25-yard volley which was saved by Shaka Hislop. Young made appearances in the 1998–99 League Cup, but was an unused substitute for the final at Wembley Stadium, which Tottenham won 1–0 against Leicester City on 21 March 1999. He was also present in the team's run through the rounds of the FA Cup, in which they lost after extra time to Newcastle United in the semi-finals.

Charlton Athletic

Young transferred to Charlton Athletic on 25 July 2001 on a four-year contract for an initial £3 million fee, adding £250,000 at the end of each of the first four seasons in which Charlton remained in the Premier League. He made his debut on 18 August 2001, in a 2–1 home loss to Everton. In his first season at the Valley, he played alongside Mark Fish, Jorge Costa and Jonathan Fortune in a defence whose last names combined to 'Young Fish Cost a Fortune'.
On 25 August 2004, Young scored the first goal of his career, assisted by Dennis Rommedahl to conclude a 3–0 home win over Aston Villa. He followed this on 18 September 2004 when he exploited an error by goalkeeper Maik Taylor to open a 1–1 draw at Birmingham City. In the spring of 2005, he was voted Player of the Year by the Charlton fans.
Before Alan Curbishley left Charlton, Young had handed in a transfer request, since he and Curbishley had not got on. After Curbishley left, Young withdrew his transfer request, but after Iain Dowie was appointed manager he reinstated it, citing the club not offering him a new contract even though he only had a year left on his existing contract. On 2 June 2006, Young was offered a new three-year deal at the Valley. On 19 July 2006, Young signed a new four-year contract at Charlton. However, Charlton finished 19th in the Premier League in the 2006–07 season, and were relegated into the Championship. Young requested a transfer, which was accepted.

Middlesbrough

Young was signed by Premier League club Middlesbrough for a £2.5 million fee on a four-year contract in July 2007. He made his debut for Middlesbrough against Newcastle. His first goal for Middlesbrough, a long-distance drive into the top corner, came against his former club Tottenham at the Riverside Stadium in a Premier League match on 3 November 2007, with the match ending in a 1–1 draw.

Aston Villa

On 7 August 2008, Aston Villa signed Young for a fee that could reach £6 million, on a three-year contract. Young made his Villa debut in their opening day Premier League fixture against Manchester City, which they won 4–2. He scored his first goal for the club in a 3–2 home victory over Blackburn Rovers, finding the net from close range on the second attempt, an important equaliser on the stroke of half-time. After some solid performances at right back in the early part of 2008–09, Young became a fans' favourite amongst the Villa supporters. A long-term injury to first-choice left back Wilfred Bouma meant that Young switched to the left side of defence to cover Bouma's absence during 2008–09.
In 2009–10, Young did not play as much first-team football as he did in the previous season, which was partly because Martin O'Neill preferred to play Carlos Cuéllar at right back. In July 2010, Liverpool and Villa agreed a fee of £2.5 million for Young, but he turned down the offer. He later revealed why he turned down the chance to move to Liverpool, saying he "had more chance of getting in the first team at Villa than I did getting in the first team at Liverpool" and "I just had the underlying feeling that I was going there as kind of a back-up for left back and right back".
Young was a regular in the starting line-up at the beginning of 2010–11 and scored his second goal for the club in a 1–0 win over Everton on 29 August 2010.

Queens Park Rangers

On 27 August 2011, Young joined Premier League club Queens Park Rangers on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee. He scored his first goal for the club on 19 November in QPR's 3–2 win against Stoke City, but went on to suffer an injury later in the same match.
After featuring regularly in the R's defence in his first season, his second season saw a change, with Mark Hughes freezing him out of the Premier League squad for the 2012–13 season. With Hughes' dismissal in November 2012, new manager Harry Redknapp suggested that Young may still have a future at the club. However, he failed to recover from an injury in time to be included in the 25-man squad submitted on 1 February 2013, raising doubts about his future.
Young made his first league appearance for QPR for almost two years against Blackburn on 8 April 2014. He was released by QPR at the end of 2013–14.

International career

Young's first call up to the England team came at the end of the 2004–05 season. His first match for England was on 28 May 2005, when he came on as a substitute against the United States with 14 minutes to play. His first full appearance in an England shirt came on 3 September 2005, when he played the full 90 minutes in the World Cup qualifying match against Wales, which England won 1–0. However, due to injury, Young failed to make the final England squad for the 2006 World Cup. On 21 March 2007, Steve McClaren drafted Young into the England team for the qualifiers against Israel and Andorra because of injuries to squad members.
In total Young played for his country seven times, his final cap coming against Argentina in November 2005. He was called up by both Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello, but he did not play for either manager. His final appearance in an England squad was for the friendly against Spain in February 2009.
On 11 November 2009, it emerged that Young had, in February 2009, made his unavailability for future international duties known to The Football Association on personal grounds. This retirement from international football was made public when Young rejected an offer to reverse his decision following the injury of Glen Johnson before a match against Brazil.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur
Aston Villa
Individual