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Leighton Baines
	Leighton Baines
Personal information
Full name	Leighton John Baines
Date of birth	11 December 1984 (age 25)
Place of birth	Kirkby, England
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing position	Left back
Club information
Current club	Everton
Number	3
Senior career1
National team2
	1 Senior club appearances and goals; counted for the domestic league only and; correct as of 18:24, 10 December 2009 (UTC).; 2 National team caps and goals correct; as of 15:54, 21 June 2007 (UTC).; * Appearances (Goals)

Leighton John Baines (born 11 December 1984 in Liverpool, Merseyside) is an English footballer, who plays left-back for Everton in the English Premier League. He won 16 caps for the England Under-21 team. He has also been selected for the full England Squad.

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Wigan

Baines made his debut for Wigan Athletic in 2002, and soon became an established member of the Wigan first team, and was a regular when Wigan earned promotion to the Premier League in 2004–05, in which he scored his first goal for the club, a spectacular strike from long-range against Ipswich Town.

Baines signed a new contract with Wigan in February 2005 despite being linked to a number of Premier League clubs, including Manchester United, Arsenal and Everton,^[2] and extended his contract again after impressive displays in his first season in the Premier League. Whilst at Wigan he started in the 2006 League Cup Final defeat to Manchester United.

He scored a vital goal for England against Germany on 6 October 2006, securing a 1–0 win in the first leg of a UEFA European U21 Championship play-off. He played all four of England's matches in the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship finals.

[edit] Everton

Transfer rumours surrounded Baines throughout the summer before the 2007–08 Premier League season, as he was linked with Everton, Newcastle and Sunderland. On 25 July 2007, Baines rejected a move to Sunderland, after their bid of a reported £6 million was accepted by Wigan, with it being suggested that the player favoured a move back to his home city of Liverpool.^[3] On 6 August 2007, it was confirmed by Wigan and the player himself that Everton had completed the signing of Baines, for an initial £5 million, with another £1m in add-ons, depending on Baines' appearances for Everton.^[4]^[5] However, he did not play regularly in his first season, making just 29 appearances in all competitions, due to an injury and the good form of Phil Jagielka and Joseph Yobo at centre back which kept Joleon Lescott at left back.

His second season at Everton saw an increase in Baines' playing time. Due to an injury to Yobo, Lescott moved to the centre of defence. Baines slotted into the left back position and performed well, providing excellent delivery and helped maintain Everton's good form, his partnership with Steven Pienaar bringing balance to the left hand side and setting up many headers for Cahill and Fellaini due to his talent for crossing.

He was voted player of the Month at Everton two months in a row in the 2008/09 season after some great performances during March and April.

Baines scored his first ever Everton goal against Portsmouth on 21 March, at Fratton Park, after 57 games (in all competitions) without scoring. The day after he received his first ever call up to the England national squad.^[6] On 30 August 2009, he scored a last minute penalty in a 2-1 win over his former team Wigan. On 17 September he captained Everton for the first time in a Europa League match against AEK Athens.