Eric Young

Who is Eric Young?

Eric Young is a retired footballer, who was a strong, commanding centre half nicknamed "Ninja" due to his ever-present brown headband.

Young started his career at non-league Southall and then moved to Slough Town where his commanding style was noticed by a number of league clubs; he played for Slough for 3 seasons. Young was eventually signed by Brighton & Hove Albion in 1982. During the period in non-league football Young continued with his accountancy training. He made his league debut in the first match of the 1982–83 season and went on to make 126 appearances for the club, scoring 10 goals before transferring to Wimbledon for £70,000 on the eve of the 1987–88 season.

He became a firm favourite at Wimbledon and had a formidable central defensive partnership with Andy Thorn, playing in their famous victory over Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup Final. After 99 appearances and 9 goals for the club he was sold to Crystal Palace for £850,000. At Palace he played some of the best football of his career, and resumed the Thorn/Young defensive partnership that had been so successful with Wimbledon. Eric was a mainstay in the team that finished third in the old first division and kept his place in the side until a public fall out with manager Alan Smith at the beginning of the ill fated 1994–95 season that saw him dropped until the final five matches of that campaign.