Neil James Young was born in Fallowfield, Manchester on 17 February 1944 and lived half a mile from Manchester City’s Maine Road ground. Young signed for Manchester City as an apprentice in 1959 and he was capped by England at youth level. He turned professional in July 1960 and made his first team debut in November 1961, in a 2–1 defeat at Aston Villa helping to set up the goal for Peter Dobing After breaking into the team for the first time, Young played every match in the remainder of the 1961–62 season. He scored his first goal for the club on 23 December 1961, in a 3–0 home win against Ipswich and finished his first season with 10 goals in 24 league appearances.
Joe Mercer joined the club in July 1965 with coach Malcolm Allison, after missing the start of the 1965/66 season with an illness that resulted in a tonsillectomy he marked his return to the team with two goals against Coventry. Up until this point in his career, Young had usually played on the left wing. However, encouraged by Mercer and Allison to shoot more frequently his position began to vary. Against Leyton Orient, Young was deployed as an inside forward, and scored a hat-trick. By January, Manchester City was top of the Second Division. The club only lost one match in the remainder of the season, and won the Second Division Championship by a five point margin. Young finished as the club's highest goalscorer, with 17 goals
In 1967/68 season Manchester City traveled to Newcastle knowing a win would guarantee the championship. Young scored twice and had another disallowed as Manchester City won 4–3 to win the title, the first major honour of Young's career. Young also finished the season as the club's highest goalscorer with 20 goals.
The following season, Young played in every round as the club reached the 1969 FA Cup Final. Midway through the first half, Mike Summerbee crossed the ball from the right, and Young hit a left foot shot past Peter Shilton into the roof of the net. The match finished 1–0, Young's goal winning the Cup for Manchester City.
Cup success continued in 1969–70. The club reached and won the League Cup, though Young, who had played in all but one of the preceding rounds, was left out of the team for the final. A second final followed a month later, this time in the European Cup Winners Cup. City faced Polish club Gornik Zabrze in the final Young scored the opening goal and shortly before half-time Young was fouled in the penalty area and Francis Lee scored the resulting penalty. City won the match 2–1 to become the first English team to win a European and domestic trophy within the same season.
In late 1970, Young's brother, Chris died aged 31, an event which affected Young deeply and his performances for Manchester City suffered as a result. In the 1970–71 season he scored only one goal from 24 league appearances. In the following season, he featured only in five league matches and made his last appearance for the club on 16 October 1971, as a substitute against Leeds.
In total, Young scored 86 goals from 334 league games for Manchester City. He was transferred to Second Division club Preston for £48,000 in January 1972.
He made his debut for the Lilywhites in a 0–0 draw against Birmingham on 12 February 1972. He scored on his second appearance for the club a week later in a 3-2 defeat at Hull and went on to score a total of 3 goals from 14 appearances as Preston finished in eighteenth place, three points off relegation..
Preston continued to struggle in 1972/73 finishing one place lower than the previous season and just avoided relegation with a 1-1 draw on the final day against Champions Burnley in which Young wore the number eleven shirt. Young finished the second top scorer behind Alex Bruce with 7 league goals from 29 appearances.
The 1973/74 season saw Preston relegated to Division Three with Swindon. Young again finished second top scorer with 7 from 25 league appearances. He scored a brace twice with a 3-1 win against West Brom and a 2-2 draw against Luton. In total for PNE he scored 16 goals from 70 league appearances and made his final appearance in a 1-0 home defeat to Orient on 30 March 1974.
In July 1974 Young joined Fourth Division Rochdale and netted 4 goals from 13 league appearances in the 1974/75 season.
After retiring from football Young had many different jobs, including removals, managing a sports shop, delivering milk, working in a supermarket, and selling insurance. In his spare time he maintained his fitness by playing badminton, and after winning local tournaments, played the sport for Cheshire. During much of this period he struggled financially, to the point where he had to sell the family home and move in with his mother. Deeply depressed at this point in his life, at one point he attempted suicide. From the mid-1990s Young has coached school football teams in the area around his Cheshire home.
Young was diagnosed with terminal cancer in late 2010. Following a supporter campaign, Manchester City dedicated their FA Cup tie at Leicester on 9 January 2011 to Young. Supporters wore red and black (the colours City wore in the 1969 final victory against Leicester), with proceeds from specially made scarves being split between Young and Wythenshawe Hospital. He died on 3 February.