Latest news with #YTS
Daily Record
05-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Record
Ex footballer dead aged just 45 after battle with MS former as club confirm heartbreaking news
Tom Youngs, who played Cambridge, Northampton Town, Leyton Orient and Bury, has died at the age of 45 after a battle with multiple sclerosis Former Cambridge United striker Tom Youngs has tragically passed away at the age of 45 following a battle with multiple sclerosis (MS), the club confirmed. Youngs, who was diagnosed with MS in 2014, died on Sunday in a hospice in Bury St Edmunds. The ex-Us star is survived by his wife, Chelle, and their two daughters. Youngs joined the club's academy at just 10 years old and spent six successful years in Cambridge's first team from 1997 to 2003, scoring 48 goals in 180 appearances. Cambridge United released a statement on Monday announcing the heartbreaking news. "The news of the death on Sunday of former Cambridge United forward Tom Youngs, at the tragically early age of 45, came as a shock to all connected with the club," it read. "Tom, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014, will be remembered as a gifted player who, with probing, darting runs, intelligent positioning and poise in front of goal, graced the Abbey Stadium between 1997 and 2003." Youngs signed YTS terms in 1996 while still studying for his A levels at school. However, he showed such promise that he bypassed the rest of his YTS stint at the age of 17 and signed a two-year professional contract. The club ended their tribute with: "He signed YTS terms in 1996 while staying on at school to study for A levels, but showed such promise that a year later, at the age of 17, he bypassed the rest of his YTS stint and signed a two-year professional contract. Rest in peace, Tom." Northampton Town, where Youngs played for two years after joining for £50,000 in 2003, also paid tribute to him. On their website, the Cobblers wrote: "Tom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a life-changing event that he faced with the same resilience and honesty that marked his entire career." Youngs went on to join Leyton Orient and Bury after leaving Sixfields, combining his football career with studying sports journalism at the University of Staffordshire. Following his diagnosis with multiple sclerosis in 2014, he wrote a moving book about his experiences with the disease, which provided comfort and inspiration to many. Tributes have flooded in for the former player, with his ex-Bury teammate Jon Newby posting on X: "Very sad to read this. Played with Tom at Bury and he was a nice, very likeable fella. Even when he was at Bury, I remember him speaking very fondly about his time at Cambridge and how much he loved it there." One Cambridge fan echoed those sentiments, writing: "Absolutely devastated, spoke to Tom at the Blackpool game earlier in the season reminiscing the good ol days, you will always be in our hearts."
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A look back at David Beckham's highs and lows in Manchester as star turns 50
He is one of the best-known names, and recognisable faces, on the planet. David Beckham transcended football and established himself as a true global celebrity. It all began in London. David Robert Joseph Beckham was born at Whipps Cross University Hospital in Leytonstone, to kitchen fitter Ted and hairdresser Sandra Beckham on May 2, 1975. But it is Manchester that can rightly claim to have most shaped the life and career of Beckham, one of the most famous players to ever play the game. READ MORE: M62 LIVE as motorway shut after serious collision between 'two lorries and a vehicle' with severe traffic delays READ MORE: M62 crash latest: Motorists pictured out of their cars as motorway closed David's parents were both big Manchester United fans, a love he soon inherited. He was given the middle name Robert due to his father's love of Sir Bobby Charlton. They regularly travelled the 200 miles from their home to Old Trafford for matches. Beckham said that from an early age being a footballer was the 'only thing I ever wanted to do.' As a child, he attended one of Bobby Charlton's Soccer Schools in Manchester. And, after trials with Leyton Orient, Norwich and a stint at Tottenham's Centre of Excellence, Beckham signed a Youth Training Scheme (YTS) contract with United in July 1991, after a personal plea from Sir Alex Ferguson. "The moment I signed for United was the moment I knew my dream had come true, to play for the team my dad supported, and I supported" he said in 2013. He was part of the now legendary group of youth players, including Ryan Giggs, Gary and Phil Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, who were coached by Eric Harrison, and helped the club win the FA Youth Cup in May 1992. Then known as 'Fergie's Fledglings' when they first broke into the first team, before being later dubbed 'the Class of 92' He said of Harrison, after his death in 2019: "He taught us how to play, how to never give up, how important it was to win your individual battles and what we needed to do to play for Manchester United Football Club. "He was always watching and always with us every time we played, I can still hear him telling me NO MORE HOLLYWOOD PASSES. "I can still see him as we played on The Cliff training ground looking down on us either with a proud smile or a loud bang of his fist on the window, knowing any minute he would be on his way down to probably advise me in the most polite way to stop playing those passes." Beckham has said he did not lead a wild life at this point. 'I was allowed out, but the manager knew where we all were every minute of the day,' he told the BBC's Desert Island Discs. He said there were 'so many things going on' and he loved the music of the time, but not neccessarily the partying. "It was incredible in Manchester back then. It was the time of the Haçienda club - there were so many great things happening there at that time" he once said in an interview with Man About Town magazine. "I wasn't a clubby person. I haven't been a big clubby person my whole life, you know, even at a very young age, which I think has helped me throughout my career. I've nothing against going out and having a good time, but I think, for me it was all about Manchester United... and, of course, The Stone Roses. "Apart from the music, all I was interested in was playing for Manchester United. It was all I wanted in my life." He said of the Hacienda: "I probably only went there once, but certain songs remind me of Manchester" as he picked the Stone Roses 'I Am the Resurrection' as one of his Desert Island Discs. Beckham made his full debut for United in 1994 and made his league debut a year later, after a loan spell at Preston North End, during which Beckham has admitted he thought they 'didn't want me anymore.' However, after returning, he established himself in the first team. And after the starting the 1995/96 with a 3-1 defeat to Aston Villa - in which BBC pundit Alan Hansen famously said 'you can't win anything with kids' - he helped them to a league and FA Cup double in May. But it was on the opening day of the following season that Beckham truly announced himself to those outside of Old Trafford, with a stunning chip from the half-way line against Wimbledon. The following season he inherited the number 7 shirt, which had previously been worn by the likes of George Best and Eric Cantona, and with which he would become so associated. In 1997, his life would also change forever, off the pitch. He met Victoria Adams, 'Posh Spice' from hit pop group the Spice Girls in the Players' Lounge at a United match. In January 1998, they caused a major media storm, and it all centred around a hotel in Nantwich, Cheshire. Beckham had only been with girlfriend Victoria for 10 months when they visited Rookery Hall Hotel. But the morning after their visit, a major press conference was called at the resort. The nation's press assembled outside as Spice Girl Victoria flaunted her £65,000 diamond solitaire handcrafted ring. Then aged just 23, Victoria told the media: "I am the happiest girl on the world today. I'm with the man I know I'm going to grow old and wrinkly with." According to book Arise Sir David Beckham: Footballer, Celebrity, Legend, Becks popped the question when the couple were in one of the Rookery's lavish rooms in their dressing gowns. Victoria had been given 30 roses, before arriving in her room to be greeted by £200-worth of lillies. And as part of the band that pioneered the term 'girl power', she had also bought her beau a £50,000 diamond-encrusted gold ring during filming for Spice World from a Hollywood jeweller. She reportedly said: "I said yes, then produced my own ring and said 'don't forget girl power – will YOU marry me?" When he first met Victoria, David was living in a modest pad on Hazelhurst Road in Worsley, Salford which, aged 20, he had bought directly from a developer for £150,000 It was thought that he moved to Worsley, Salford, to be close to his friend and fellow United star Ryan Giggs who lived nearby. Victoria was a regular visitor and spoke fondly of it to the Manchester Evening News back in 2008. She said: 'When we were last in Manchester for the Spice Girls gig David and I drove back to that house in Hazelhurst Road to have a look. "There are such fond memories for us - of the Trafford Centre and all that kind of thing. I know David misses Manchester as well and still keeps in touch with everyone.' The lowpoint of Beckham's career came as he was sent off for petulantly kicking out at Diego Simeone during England's defeat by Argentina in the last 16 of the 1998 World Cup. Many fans blamed him for the loss and he suffered a very public vilification. David has previously said there were a lot of misconceptions about his life at this time. People thought he was living in London with Victoria and driving to Manchester to train, which wasn't true. The first property they bought together was apartment at Oakwood House in Alderley Edge, in Cheshire's 'golden triangle.' The couple gave birth to son Brooklyn in March 1999, who took his first steps there. Posh and Becks were said to among the visitors to the legendary Alderley Edge nightclub Brasingamens. Ncknamed The Braz, it was also frequented by Cristiano Ronaldo, Peter Crouch and John Terry when in its early-noughties heyday. The club was famed for its lock-ins, often featuring famous faces. Beckham attended football super-agent Dave Gardner's stag do at the club in 2003. Although they bought Rowneybury House in Hertfordshire, which became known as 'Beckingham Palace' - in 1999, in 2001 they moved onto the Heawood Hall Estate in the idyllic Cheshire village of Nether Alderley. The estate which was once owned by the family behind the well-known, Manchester-based brewery Boddingtons. Grade II listed Heawood Hall is believed to date from 1720 and was later divided into three separate properties, one being the Beckham's converted barn Their two oldest children, Brooklyn and brother Romeo, grew up here. According to CheshireLive, there were fewer than 700 people lived in the sparse smattering of large houses when the Beckhams purchased their property, but United teammate Ole Gunnar Solskjær was among their neighbours. Solskjær would ultimatel gift Beckham his greatest footballing moment, with his last-gasp goal against Bayern Munich in the Nou Camp in 1999 winning them the Champions League and completing the treble. An estimated half a million people lined the streets for an open-top bus crawl from Sale into the city centre to a reception in front of thousands more at the Manchester Arena. Beckham was named England captain by stand-in boss Peter Taylor in 2000, and he went on to skipper his country 59 times. He achieved full redemption in the eyes of the English public when he secured a spot in the 2002 World Cup with a stunning free-kick in stoppage time of the last qualifier against Greece at Old Trafford. England were trailing 2-1 and staring at the prospect of a play-off when Beckham curled home in spectacular, trademark style. He also featured in one of the best-known moments of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. Kirsty Howard, from Wyhenshawe, who had been born with a back-to-front heart and who was given weeks to live at the age of four, joined Beckham in handing over the baton to the Queen at the opening ceremony. Through the 'Kirsty Appeal' she went on to raise £7.5 million for Francis House which it said 'secured its future.' Following her death in 2015, at the age of 20, David paid tribute to an 'inspirational young lady.' One of the most enduring images from Beckham's career came after he emerged from Old Trafford with a cut above his eye following a defeat to Arsenal in 2003. It later transpired United manager Sir Alex Ferguson had kicked a boot in frustration and it struck Beckham, who went on to join Real Madrid later that year. Despite playing a prominent role in Madrid's 'galactico' era alongside the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos, it was not until Beckham's fourth and final season at the Bernabeu he finally won LaLiga. Beckham became just the fifth player to earn 100 England caps when he featured against France in Paris in 2008. The last of his 115 international appearances came in 2009. After playing 724 games in a professional career that also included spells at Preston, Los Angeles Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris St Germain, Beckham broke down in tears as he made his final outing for the French side against Brest in May 2013. David has said he will 'always' be a United fan. He is also invested in the area in other ways. Beckham has a 10 percent stake in the League Two club alongside former Manchester United teammates Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes. When the former teammates took over the club in 2014, Beckham was notably absent from the new ownership team. It would take another five years, until January 2019, for him to purchase his stake in the club from Lim and join his former teammates as directors. David said the 'time was right.' He said: "'It's a really special club and a special group of people. My early years in Manchester were all spent in Salford. I grew up there in many ways, so to be able to finally join the lads and the club today is a great feeling.' In January this year, Beckham attended the funeral of long-serving United receptionist Kath Phipps at Manchester. In a post on Instagram where he was holding her hand, he said: "The first and last face I would always see was Kath sat at reception at Old Trafford waiting to give me my tickets for the game. "She was the heartbeat of Manchester United , everyone knew who Kath was and everyone adored her.. "I moved up to Manchester at 15 and Kath made a promise to my mum and dad 'I'll look after your boy for you don't you worry' and from that first day till the last day I spent with her that's exactly what she did. "Old Trafford will never be the same without your smile as we walk through those doors... We love you."
Telegraph
26-03-2025
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Dean Sturridge: ‘I gambled entire signing-on fee within hours of joining Derby County'
It was not until Dean Sturridge had long hung up his boots that he faced up to being an addict during his entire 15 years as a footballer, a career that started with earning a first professional contract at Derby County and gambling away the signing-on fee within hours. Back then, in the 1990s and 2000s, Sturridge was scoring goals in the Premier League but hiding his secret. In the toilet cubicles of dressing rooms or the massage table as he received treatment, he would be gambling on horse racing. When everything was going well, he would not gamble. But when there were struggles or injuries, he had a bet virtually every day of his career. Sturridge had grown up with the bookmakers as a second home. At seven, he could barely see over the counter but was asked to put on bets for his family if the cashier turned a blind eye to age limits. Football was merely an extension of that, so when Arthur Cox gave Sturridge a first professional deal, raising his £37.50-a-week YTS wages dramatically, his first instinct was to put some bets on. 'My first signing-on fee as a professional as an 18-year-old was thousands of pounds,' he said. 'Within hours of receiving that signing on fee, I'd lost it at the bookies. I had a car waiting for me that was ordered beforehand and I couldn't pay for it. The one and only time I borrowed money from a team-mate was for that so I didn't have the enjoyment and the joy of buying my first car. 'Ford Fiesta Firefly. Red, with black trim at the bottom. I can remember like it was yesterday.' Just going through the logistics of gambling that amount of money shows the lengths at which Sturridge would go in order to bet. He would get £500 maximum daily limit from a cash point, then go in person to an HSBC branch where he would write cheques for cash at £1,000 at a time. 'My first car was a feeling of pain in a way, an embarrassment and guilt in not being able to fund it myself,' he said. 'I knew something wasn't right, but because you get conditioned from a young age as a footballer, when you get tackled, get up, get on with it and there's that masculinity. When you go into a professional environment, it's definitely exacerbated in that you have to be a certain way and conduct yourself in a certain way.' Those pressures for footballers are still there, as they are in all walks of life. Sturridge is an ambassador for the Gordon Moody charity that is providing residential treatment for gambling addicts. Speaking at their treatment centre in Redditch, he says gambling was almost constant in his career. 'I'd go with team-mates to the bookies. But also in the changing rooms, young players would sweep and clean up after the senior pros. You'd see the Racing Post and Sporting Life on the benches on the sides and people talking about it. 'But before I became an academy player, when I was 13 or 14, I won thousands of pounds and that was when you think you've got a secret system that nobody else knows. That addict has that kind of mindset that you're thinking: 'OK, I can get one over the bookies' or that this is a way of me getting money regularly. 'Horses were my poison. When I got into football, then it might have branched out to a bit of golf and tennis and greyhounds, but football, never, thankfully. You're doing it on the way to an away game, you're playing a card school, team-mates are losing huge amounts of money before a game. 'I would go to the changing-room toilet before the game to put a bet on an hour before kick-off. Or listen or watch a race with the colours. I wouldn't listen. I'd turn the volume down because I'd be in the toilet, and I'd be looking at the colours of the horse that I'd backed.' Sturridge ended up playing 155 games in the top flight and is still Derby's record Premier League goalscorer. But lingering at the back of his mind is whether gambling impacted his preparations for games. The worst times were when he could not prepare for games as he was out injured. 'Whenever I cross the white line, it's out of your brain because you're concentrating on something you love. But surely, in the process of preparing for the game, it must be there and affect you, and you try [to] compartmentalise it.' His own family have first-hand experiences of gambling difficulties, with nephew Daniel Sturridge, the former Liverpool and England striker, banned for four months after breaching the Football Association's betting rules. Now 51, Dean Sturridge still believes the same masculine environment exists in football, even if there is better support for today's players. 'This generation have more of a voice and can articulate themselves better than my generation, but I still feel we are in a world of football where you're fearful to show vulnerability or frailties,' he said. 'I'm trying to send the message to say, you're not alone, I had those feelings. If you could speak out and just connect with somebody and talk about it, because you'd have a better football career and a better life after football also. 'I feel there needs to be something more in place where it's consistent, once a week, or once a month, where somebody's consistently coming in and giving a message, so then you're soaking it up as a person. 'We had sports psychologists that came in like Bill Beswick, who was at Derby, and eventually Steve McClaren. Didn't ever bring it up to me, never ever asked me about it. It was only as I got older, it took me over 40 years ultimately to realise: 'Wait a minute, you are an addict.'' Sturridge says time is the most valuable commodity he lost while his gambling was out of control. Never fully engaged in conversations with family and friends, the turning point came on December 3, 2019, when his wife came back home unexpectedly early and saw him watching horse racing on television. 'I had the horse racing on the TV and had said I wasn't gambling as much, and when she came back and as soon as she came in the living room, I just broke down,' he said. 'At that stage, I was probably thinking, I'm only losing money here. But then through recovery, I realised money is important, but more important is time, losing connections, being present and being fully invested.' As a team-mate of Paul Gascoigne at Wolves when the former England midfielder was on trial at Molineux in 2003, Sturridge says his plight is just another example of how addictions can take over when things go wrong in football. 'I did feel sorry for him. I knew that he'd gone through a lot and he had been affected mentally because of how his career had gone,' Sturridge said. 'I can remember going back home to my partner at the time and saying: 'He's in a bad way.' And you know it because I played a game with him, a reserve team game and he couldn't complete a pass and he broke down off the back of it. When you are happy you don't need that escapism. But as soon as things start going wrong that's when I'm looking for something to help me in that process of dealing with rejection and not being able to play the game I love.'
Telegraph
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The tragedy of Peter Whittingham: ‘We want to celebrate his life – that's what he would have wanted'
Sibling rivalry was fierce in the Whittingham household – at least until Peter started to smash his older brother's records. Football was the sport in which Peter really excelled, making more than 500 combined appearances for Cardiff City and Aston Villa, and Friday night's FA Cup fifth-round tie between the clubs will mark almost five years since his death. Peter would watch James play for Coventry City's academy before he was old enough to take part, but quickly overtook him and was eventually offered a youth training scheme (YTS) contract at Villa, while his older brother concentrated his efforts outside football. Recalling what it was like to have a younger brother who was better than him at football, James laughed fondly and said: 'Oh, it was terrible! In my last year at junior school I held the record for 37 goals or something. And then two years later, he got 100! He'd score 11 goals in one game and do silly things like that.' Peter's sporting talent did not stop at football, which prompted James, who was born two years before him to the day, to jokingly christen his brother 'golden balls'. 'One of the things people often don't realise about Peter is that he was really talented at so many things, not just football,' said James. 'Particularly racket sports – tennis, table tennis – and cricket. He played rugby at school. He was a really gifted sportsman and after he retired from football he was playing a lot of golf. 'I always used to joke that he was the 'golden balls' of the family, but we were very close, as kids and also as adults even though our lives became very different. I was just super proud of him, we all were.' That pride was evident during an hour in which tears fell down James's face, as he shared some of his memories of Peter before what will be an emotionally-charged evening for the Whittingham family who have been invited to the FA Cup tie as guests of Villa. Peter died aged 35 on March 18, 2020 after falling down stairs and hitting his head while with friends watching England play Wales in the Six Nations. His wife Amanda was pregnant with their second child, Seb, at the time, while his eldest son, Will, was just two. 'The fact the Six Nations comes around every year does bring that back,' said 42-year-old James, who works in investment. 'Particularly when it's England v Wales. 'In some ways the five years have gone quite quickly – the memories of growing up with him, being with him, his humour, his disposition, that still feels very close to me and the family, and it still feels like it's omnipresent. But the reason why it also feels longer than five years is how much his boys have grown up.' Peter was part of Villa's FA Youth Cup-winning side that beat an Everton team featuring Wayne Rooney in the final, before making 66 first-team appearances for the club and earning 17 England Under-21 caps. He joined Cardiff in 2007 in what may rank as the best £350,000 the club has ever spent, as Peter went on to score 96 goals in 457 appearances. The midfielder had a habit of netting spectacular goals with his wand of a left foot and he won the Championship golden boot after hitting 20 in the 2009-10 season. During his time in Wales, Peter helped Cardiff reach the 2008 FA Cup final and won promotion to the Premier League in 2013. He was twice named the club's player of the year and was voted into three Championship teams of the year, as well as being included in the Championship team of the decade. 'One of the biggest accolades for Peter was being picked in the team of the year stuff that was voted for by other professionals,' said James. 'His old team-mate, Michael Chopra, said he was a footballer's footballer and that would have meant a lot to him.' Two years after Peter's death, Cardiff retired the No 7 shirt as a tribute and his memory will be marked by a group of Villa fans who crowd-funded to have a banner made in his honour that will be displayed at Friday night's game. The remaining proceeds from the banner have been donated to the Peter Whittingham Foundation that James established with Amanda, his sister, Rachel, and mother, Sally. 'The reaction after the draw was made has been really lovely,' said James. 'Myself and my eldest two children will be there. I think Amanda and the boys will be there. My mum will probably be going and my sister and her children. So there will be a lot of the family at the game. 'With all this, the family, as much as possible, has tried to make things about celebrating Peter, his life and his achievements. He's not the kind of guy who would have wanted us all to sit around. He loved life and he was always very witty, always had a smile on his face. He was glass half-full and that's how he would have wanted us to be. 'He lived his dream, really. He played football for a living and woke up every day and did what he wanted to do, what he always wanted to do. I can't stress enough his love of football and his love for his family.' This will not be the first time Cardiff and Villa have faced each other since Peter's death. His former clubs took part in a memorial match in 2022 that launched the foundation, which has raised £150,000 for three charities: Winston's Wish, Cardiff City in the community and a sports bursary at King Henry VIII School in Coventry. 'The other thing we've had discussions on, with some Cardiff fan associations, is the possibility of a statue of Peter outside the club's ground,' said James. 'It's something we're exploring with Cardiff and it would obviously be a multi-year fundraising process. It's just trying to think what we can do that is positive because that's why the foundation was established.' Peter had retired from football only around 18 months before his death and it is the thought of what his brother could have turned his talents to next that James finds particularly upsetting. 'The question was always how he was going to spend his time after playing and something I learnt at his memorial from speaking to people was that he was planning to go back into doing some coaching with younger players,' said James. 'That's one of the things that disappoints me a lot because I think he would have been great at it. I think he'd be able to offer a lot in terms of insights and I think he was quite good at picking a player. He would have been really good at it and immersed himself in it, as well as the family and the boys. That's the hard thing, all the time you are missing and what he could have done.'
