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Luke Paul Young (born 19 July 1979 in Harlow, Essex) is an English footballer who currently plays for Middlesbrough.

Young has an older brother, Neil Young, who is also a professional footballer, playing for A.F.C. Bournemouth. During Neil's testimonial match, Neil captained the Bournemouth team and brother Luke captained the Charlton team, who were the opponents. The final score was a 5-2 win for Charlton Athletic. Luke also has a younger brother who is currently at West Ham United's Youth Academy.^{[citation needed]}

Young started his career playing for Tottenham Hotspur in 1997, making over 50 appearances, mainly at full-back. He was transferred to Charlton in 2001, for a fee of £4 million. He has made over 180 league appearances for Charlton, once playing alongside Mark Fish, Jorge Costa and Jonathan Fortune in a defence whose last names combined to 'Young Fish Costa Fortune'. In the spring of 2005 he was voted player of the year by the Charlton fans.

Before Alan Curbishley left Charlton Athletic, Young had handed in a transfer request, since he and Curbishley had not got on.^{[citation needed]} After Curbishley left Young withdrew his transfer request, but after Iain Dowie was appointed Charlton manager he once again put in a transfer request, citing the club not offering him a new contract, even though he still had a year left on his existing contract. The following day Young was offered a new three year deal at The Valley,^[1] but seemed intent on traveling to West Ham United. Many speculated this was because he wanted to be at a bigger club, and to play in the UEFA Cup. West Ham had offered Charlton £3.8 million for Young, but the Charlton Chairman Richard Murray wanted to keep him at The Valley.^{[citation needed]} On July 4, 2006 West Ham decided to move on after it was believed Charlton boss Iain Dowie persuaded Young to remain at Charlton. However, there was continued speculation in the press that Young decided to stay with Charlton only because he failed a medical conducted by West Ham.^{[citation needed]} On 19 July 2006, Luke Young signed a new four year contract at Charlton Athletic.^[2] However, Charlton had a very poor premiership season, and went through three managers, Iain Dowie, Les Reed, and Alan Pardew, who had been dismissed by West Ham. Charlton finished 19th and were relegated to the Championship. Luke Young asked for a transfer request accepted and was linked with Aston Villa, Bolton, Newcastle, and Middlesbrough.

Young was signed by Middlesbrough for a fee of £2.5 million on a four-year deal in July 2007.^[3]. He made his debut for Middlesbrough against Newcastle. His first goal for Middlesbrough came against his former club, Tottenham Hotspur, at The Riverside in a Barclays Premiership match on the 3rd of November, 2007. The Match ended 1-1.

Young's first call up to the England team came at the end of the 2004-05 season. His first game for England was on 28 May 2005, when he came on as substitute against the USA 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 game 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 the 21st March 2007 Steve McClaren drafted Young into the England team for the qualifiers against Israel and Andorra because of injuries to squad members.

As of 12 July 2007 he has played for his country seven times, although the last time he was capped was against Argentina in November 2005.

Following Ashley Cole's withdrawal through injury, Luke Young was called up to the squad to face Russia on the 17th of October 2007.

• Luke Young career stats at Soccerbase
• TheFA.com profile