PLAYER PROFILE

Luke Moore

Position: Forward

Height: 5'10

Weight: 12st 10lbs

Date of Birth: 1986-02-13 Birmingham, England

Luke Moore

Younger brother of first-team striker Stefan, Luke Moore signed a two-year deal with Villa in July 2003 after progressing through the club's youth ranks.

Still only a youngster, the striker is tipped to be as hot a prospect as Everton's Wayne Rooney, and judging by the 18 goals he scored in just seven games for Villa's under 17's, he may well be on his way.

The youngster moved up to the reserve team last season, scoring over 20 goals in League and Cup competitions and also won the Villa the FA Youth Cup in 2002 with his brother Stefan.

And the player is confident in his ability, hoping that he can become Villa's answer to Thierry Henry.

"For me the best striker at the minute is Thierry Henry. I try and take parts of his game and put them into mine. Hopefully when I'm older, people will be looking at my game and do the same.

"Henry's the complete player. Obviously I love to score goals, but I want to be more than that. I don't want to just be a six-yard box player, I want to be able to do everything and hopefully I will be able to do that in a Villa shirt."

Young Luke is encouraged by watching his older brother his break into the Villa first team.

"It was great to see Stef in the first-team last year. Now I want to do the same. So I've got to keep scoring for the youth team and do well when I get in the reserves," he said.

In 2003/04 he enjoyed a successfull loan spell with Wycombe Wanderers, scoring four goals in six appearances. He also made his first appearance for Villa as a substitute in the derby clash with Birmingham and he played six more times that season.

Moore proved to be a useful utility player for Villa in the 2004/05 season as he made 27 appearances, though all but 5 were as a substitute. He scored only once - the second in a 2-0 home victory to Middlesborough.

The 2005/06 saw Moore climb up the ranks, as he made nineteen start for O'Leary's men, scoring eight goals, including a superb hat-trick in a 4-0 thrashing of Middlesbrough in February 2006.

However, his progress was hampered in the 06/07 season as he spent long periods out with a shoulder injury. He started just eight games, but did score an impressive four goals in that period.