Alex Young is a former Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

. He was a prolific goal-scorer in Everton

Everton F.C.

Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...

's 1962-63 championship season.

Biography

Alex Young first played for Newtongrange Star

Newtongrange Star F.C.

Newtongrange Star F.C. is a Scottish junior football club based in the village of Newtongrange, Midlothian. The home ground is New Victoria Park. The facility includes an enclosed pitch with full floodlighting, covered enclosure, changing rooms, with a separate social club...

 in Midlothian but soon joined Hearts

Heart of Midlothian F.C.

Heart of Midlothian Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Gorgie, in the west of Edinburgh. They currently play in the Scottish Premier League and are one of the two principal clubs in the city, the other being Hibernian...

 making his debut at the age of 18. He helped Hearts win the Scottish First Division championship in 1958 with 20 goals. Two seasons later he scored 23 goals when Hearts won the title again.

He was signed to Everton

Everton F.C.

Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...

 for £42,000 by Johnny Carey

Johnny Carey

John Joseph "Johnny" Carey , also known as Jackie Carey, was an Irish footballer and manager. As a player Carey spent most of his career at Manchester United, where he was team captain from 1946 until he retired as a player in 1953...

 from Hearts in November 1960 but was not an immediate success. However his partnership with Roy Vernon

Roy Vernon

Thomas Royston "Roy" Vernon was a Welsh international footballer who played for Blackburn Rovers, Everton and Stoke City.-Career:...

 soon blossomed. Young scored 22 league goals in the 42 league games in the 1962-63 season and made many other goals. His elegant touch earned him the nickname of 'The Golden Vision', a title coined by Danny Blanchflower

Danny Blanchflower

Robert Dennis "Danny" Blanchflower was a former Northern Ireland international footballer and football manager, and journalist who captained Tottenham Hotspur F.C. during its double-winning season of 1961. He was ranked as the greatest player in Spurs history by The Times in 2009...

 - "...the view every Saturday that we have of a more perfect world, a world that has got a pattern and is finite. And that's Alex – the Golden Vision."

Alex Young featured as himself in a drama-documentary film by Ken Loach

Ken Loach

Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

 called "The Golden Vision", released in 1969.

In addition to the championship, Young won an FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

 winners medal in Everton

Everton F.C.

Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...

's epic win in 1966

1966 FA Cup Final

The 1966 FA Cup Final was a football match played on 14 May 1966. It was contested by an Everton team that was the first team to reach an FA Cup Final without conceding in the preceding rounds and Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley....

. Young also won two caps for Scotland

Scotland national football team

The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

. Young scored 87 goals in 273 appearances in all competitions for Everton before leaving for Glentoran

Glentoran F.C.

Glentoran F.C. is a semi-professional, football club in Northern Ireland. The club was founded in 1882 and plays its home games at the Oval in east Belfast. Club colours are green, red, and black.Glentoran's biggest rivals are Linfield...

 in 1968. Young later played briefly for Stockport County

Stockport County F.C.

Stockport County Football Club is an English football club based in Stockport, Greater Manchester. The club formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, shortly afterwards merging with Heaton Norris F.C., and adopted the current name on 24 May 1890 on the creation of the County Borough of Stockport...

 for 23 games before a knee injury forced his retirement.

After football Young ran his family's upholstery

Upholstery

Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word upholstery comes from the Middle English word upholder, which referred to a tradesman who held up his goods. The term is equally applicable to domestic,...

 business in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 before retiring. His son, Jason, became a professional footballer in the 1990s but could not match his famous father's prowess, and spent his career mostly in the Scottish lower divisions.

Belatedly, in August 2001, Everton gave Alex Young a testimonial

Testimonial match

A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, notably football and especially in the United Kingdom, where a club puts on a match in honour of a player for service to the club....

 at Goodison Park

Goodison Park

Goodison Park is a football stadium located in Walton, Liverpool, England. The stadium has been home to Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892 and is one of the world's first purpose-built football grounds...

, with over 20,000 turning out to salute him.

External links

• Alex Young page at www.evertonfc.com
• Hall of Fame: Young, Alex ("Golden Vision") from wwww.toffeeweb.com