Ashley Young: biography

Ashley Young is an English international and Premier League footballer. Currently playing for Aston Villa, he belonged to one previous club Watford that he left in 2007. An attacking player, he is competent on either wing or as a second striker.

Beginnings

Born on 9 July 1985 in Stevenage, Ashley Simon Young grew up in the county of Hertfordshire. Son of a Jamaican-born father and an English mother, he attended the John Henry Newman School in his hometown. Idolizing Ian Wright, he began to play football. After initially being turned away from Watford’s academy, Ashley was determined to make it as a professional player and after two years in the youth ranks he was offered a senior contract.

Career

Watford
Young made his debut for Watford in September 2003, but featured rarely in his first season. The next campaign, 2004-05, though poor for the hornets, saw him establish himself in the starting XI. With this experience under his belt, Ashley rose to prominence in the 2005-06 season, netting fifteen goals and notching thirteen assists as Watford gained promotion to the Premier League via the playoffs under Aidy Boothroyd. After making the step up to England’s top flight he attracted interest from West Ham and Aston Villa. Aston Villa and England
Early in the January transfer window at the beginning of 2007, the West Midlands side signed Young and he cost them a fee of £8 million, rising to £9.75 million with add-ons. Part of the Aston Villa team assembled by Martin O’Neill that achieved top-six finishes three seasons in a row from 2008 to 2010, he has flourished alongside other English talent. In his first full campaign in Birmingham, Ashley achieved a best haul of nine goals and seventeen assists, as well as making his international debut against Austria. A fringe player under Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello prior to the 2010 World Cup, he was not selected for the squad that went to South Africa. Young was part of the Villa side that came runners-up in the 2010 Football League Cup to Manchester United. Capello adopted a new 4-3-3 formation during 2011 that saw Ashley start on the right of the attack. This came after his first competitive start for England against Montenegro in November 2010 and the February 2011 friendly against Denmark in which he scored. To date Young has fourteen caps. He also has ten Under-21 caps, scoring once. His emergence as an international player has seen him linked with crazy money moves to Real Madrid and Manchester United.

Achievements

To date Ashley has only the promotion gained with Watford as the only major honor on his CV.