Ashley Young participant in UEFA Euro 2012
Ashley Simon Young (born 9 July 1985) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger or full-back for Premier League club Aston Villa, where he is club captain.
Young started his career at Watford and made his first senior appearance in 2003 under manager Ray Lewington. He became a first team regular in the 2004–05 season and was one of Watford's key players in their promotion-winning 2005–06 season. In January 2007, he transferred to Aston Villa for an initial fee of £8 million where he won the PFA Young Player of the Year award in 2009. In June 2011, Young signed with Manchester United for a fee of around £17 million. He won five trophies at United, including the Premier League in 2013, the FA Cup in 2016 and the Europa League in 2017. In January 2020, Young signed for Inter Milan, with whom he won the Serie A title, becoming only the third Englishman to win Italy's top flight league.
Young earned 39 caps for England between 2007 and 2018, scoring seven international goals. He was part of the squads for UEFA Euro 2012 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup, reaching the semi-finals of the latter.UEFA Euro 2012
On 12 October 2010, Young made his first start for England in a Euro 2012 qualifying match against Montenegro. He scored his first international goal in a friendly away to Denmark on 9 February 2011 in Copenhagen, which was the winning goal. Young also scored again against Switzerland on 4 June 2011, as he got the equaliser with a volley from the edge of the area, after coming off the bench for Frank Lampard at half-time. On 6 September 2011, Young scored the only goal for England in a Euro 2012 qualifying 1–0 win against Wales. On 7 October 2011, he scored England's first goal away against Montenegro, and set up Darren Bent for the second. England drew the match 2–2 to secure qualification for UEFA Euro 2012. On 29 February 2012, Young scored his fifth international goal in a 3–2 home loss to the Netherlands in a friendly match played at Wembley Stadium.On 26 May 2012, Young scored his sixth, as well as his fourth straight, international goal in a UEFA Euro 2012 warm-up match against Norway. He became the first English footballer since Wayne Rooney to score in four straight international appearances. In his next match for England against Belgium he provided the assist for England's first goal. Young played in all four of England's matches at Euro 2012, culminating with a quarter-final defeat to Italy on penalties; Young was one of two England players to miss his penalty as Italy won 4–2 to reach a semi-final against Germany. He and the other unsuccessful player, Ashley Cole, faced online racial abuse for the miss, which was investigated by the police.
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