Tommy Younger

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Tommy Younger (born 10th April 1930, died 13th January 1984) was a Scottish professional footballer of the 1950's and 60's who played as a goalkeeper.

[edit] Life and playing career

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Younger signed for Home town club Hibernian in 1948 where he was part of the successful side of the early 50s, winning two titles in 1951 and 1952. Younger soon gained a reputation for being an excellent goalkeeper and alerted Liverpool manager Phil Taylor who captured his signature in June 1956 for £9000.

He made his debut at Anfield on the 18th August, the same year, in a league match against Huddersfield Town, However, Huddersfield spoilt Younger day by taking both points from a 3-2 win. He kept his first clean-sheet 2 games later at Gigg Lane as the Reds beat Bury 2-0. Tommy immediately took over the No.1 jersey at Anfield and played in 43 of Liverpool's 45 matches in his first season.

Tommy was capped by Scotland 24 times in just 3 years making his debut on the 4th May 1955 in a friendly international against Portugal at Hampden Park, Glasgow, the Scots were to strong for their Iberian counterparts winning the game 3-0 thus gaining Younger his first clean-sheet at national level. Tommy also had the honour of keeping goal for the Scottish side during the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, he played in 2 matches, the first against Yugooslavia with the second, his last appearance for the Scots, coming against Paraguay.

Younger spent 3 years at Liverpool only missing 6 matches during this time, he was allowed to leave to take on a player/manager role at Falkirk, a back injury lead to Tommy ending his career but after finding out that the injury wasn't as bad as first diagnosed he returned to England when Stoke City signed him in 1960. Younger went on to play for Leeds United where he finally retired in 1962.

After his retirement he stayed on at Leeds as a scout before he got his first coaching role, it was in Canada at Toronto City. After his stint in Toronto he headed back to the club that set him on his way, Hibs. As well as being a fabulous keeper he also had an astute business brain which he used in his role as, at first, a director at the Easter Road club and then Chairman.

Tommy also put a lot back into the Scottish game after he was appointed to the Scottish Football Association where he eventually became President a role in stayed in right up until his death on the 13th January 1984 aged just 53.