Young was a teenage prodigy who left Australia at the age of 17 to sign for Championship club Reading.

The keeper was good enough through his heritage to represent England at Under-18, Under-19 and Under-20 level, where his international teammates included Wayne Rooney.

But his first-team breakthrough at Reading never came and he left the club in 2006.

Young then spent four years at Wycombe Wanderers, dealt with injury problems, and then had another four in England's rough and tumble lower leagues before eventually returning home in 2014.

He came back to Brisbane, his hometown, and signed for the Roar.

But initially it wasn't all plain-saling in the A-League either, as the shot-stopper had to bide his time and wait for his chance behind entrenced first-choice keeper Michael Theo.

An injury to Theo eventually gave Young his opportunity and he hasn't looked back.

The keeper won club player of the year awards in both 2018 and 2019, and in was named A-League goalkeeper of the year for the 2017/2018 season. In the past six years he has made more than 100 appearances for the Roar.

His drive and determination paid off.

"For any young footballer or any footballer, or people in everyday life, they get setbacks and knockbacks and failures in their life," Young told FTBL.

"The only way I’ve overcome those sorts of things is assessing what's happening and finding out how to improve on those things, and then on top of that it’s just about self-belief and a hell of a lot of persistence.

"That’s something I’ve always had in spades. It’s not rocket science at all, it’s patience and belief."

It was a similar story at the start of the 2019/2020 season. A new manager was appointed in Robbie Fowler. He brought in a lot of new players, including Kiwi keeper Max Crocombe from the UK.

Young had to start at the bottom again and missed the first seven games, with Crocombe preferred at the number one.

Then in round eight the 34-year-old won his spot back and has held it for the past 16 games in a row.