Alexander Young (20 October 1925 – 2 March 2010) was a Scottish footballer and coach. He played at

centre-half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for the league-winning

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

team of 1954–55, and was inducted into the Aberdeen FC "Hall of Fame" as one of the founding members in 2003.

Playing career

Young began his playing career in junior football in the West of Scotland, playing for Kilsyth Rangers and Blantyre Victoria – with whom he won a

Scottish Junior Cup The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA). The competition has been held every year since the inception of the SJFA on the 2nd October 1886 and, as of the 2023–24 ed ...

in 1950 – before signing for Aberdeen at the relatively late age of 24. He was a mainstay of the successful Aberdeen side of the 1950s, playing in every game of the league championship season in 1954–55, and appearing in two

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

and

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

. In the second of these finals, Young scored an own goal to open the scoring for

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

, who went on to win 2–1. Young never appeared for the Scotland national team, despite being a highly regarded defender, and having captained the junior international side. Archie Glen, one of Young's teammates in the league-winning side, considered him to be one of that side's more under-rated players: Young left Aberdeen in 1958, moving to Ross County, then in the Highland League, where he served as player-coach until retiring on medical advice in 1964. He went on to run a grocery shop in

Fortrose Fortrose is a town and former royal burgh on the Black Isle in the Highland (council area), Highland council area of Scotland, about northeast of Inverness. The town is known for its ruined 13th-century Fortrose Cathedral, cathedral, and as ...

.Caught in Time: Aberdeen's first championship side, April 1955
''The Sunday Times'', 17 July 2005

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

References

1925 births 2010 deaths Footballers from Glasgow Men's association football central defenders Scottish men's footballers Aberdeen F.C. players Ross County F.C. players Scottish Football League players Kilsyth Rangers F.C. players Blantyre Victoria F.C. players Highland Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scotland men's junior international footballers 20th-century Scottish sportsmen {{Scotland-footy-defender-1920s-stub