Leighton John Baines (born 11 December 1984) is an English footballer who plays for Everton and the England national football team.
He started his career with Wigan Athletic, with whom he won the Second Division in the 2002–03 season and was a runner-up in the 2004–05 Championship and the 2006 Football League Cup Final. He joined Everton in 2007, helping them reach the 2009 FA Cup Final. He has played for England at under-21 and senior levels.
Baines began his career as a left-winger at the Liverpool Centre of Excellence. He also represented the Merseyside boys team, but his career went no further at Liverpool. After interest from Wolverhampton Wanderers he joined Wigan Athletic.
Baines made his debut for Wigan Athletic in 2002, and was a member of the team that won the Second Division in the 2002–03 season. He was a regular in the first-team when Wigan earned promotion to the Premier League in 2004–05. That season saw Baines score his first goal for the club, a long-range shot against Ipswich Town.
Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team.
Rooney made his senior international debut in 2003 becoming the youngest player to represent England (a record later broken by Theo Walcott). He is England's youngest ever goalscorer. He played at UEFA Euro 2004 and scored four goals, briefly becoming the competition's youngest goalscorer. Rooney featured at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and is widely regarded as his country's best player. He has won the England Player of the Year award twice, in 2008 and 2009. As of September 2011, he has won 73 international caps and scored 28 goals. Along with David Beckham, Rooney is the most red carded player for England, having been sent off twice.
Aged nine, Rooney joined the youth team of Everton, for whom he made his professional debut in 2002. He spent two seasons at the Merseyside club, before moving to Manchester United for £25.6 million in the 2004 summer transfer window. The same year, Rooney acquired the nickname "Wazza". Since then, with Rooney in the team, United have won the Premier League four times, the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League and two League Cups. He also holds two runner-up medals from both the Premier League and the Champions League. In April of the 2011–12 season Rooney scored his 180th goal, making him United's fourth highest goal-scorer of all time.
Leon Osman (born 17 May 1981) is an English football player who plays for Everton in the Premier League. He has spent his whole career as an Everton player, though he has spent time on loan at Carlisle United and Derby County.
Osman was born in Billinge Higher End, Wigan in Greater Manchester to a Turkish Cypriot father and an English mother. He grew up in Skelmersdale and Huyton, on Merseyside, attending Up Holland High School and Winstanley College. He joined the Everton Academy and was part of the team that won the 1998 FA Youth Cup. Following the cup victory Osman sustained a knee injury which kept him from playing for a year. Through his father he is eligible to play for Turkey or Cyprus. Through his mother he is able to play for England.
Osman was loaned to Carlisle United in October 2002, where he scored once in the league against Macclesfield Town and a brace against Oldham Athletic in the LDV Vans Trophy and was awarded Player of the Year by the club. He was granted a one year extension to his Everton contract in the summer of 2003, but failed to break into the first team until the end of the 2003–04 season. Instead, he was again loaned out, this time to Derby County. He had an integral role in Derby's successful bid to avoid relegation, and manager George Burley tried to buy him from Everton. Instead, Osman returned to his parent club with three games remaining in Everton's season. Manager David Moyes gave Osman his first start, against Wolverhampton Wanderers, and he scored within three minutes of his debut.
Ashley Cole (born 20 December 1980) is an English footballer who plays for Chelsea and the England national team. He plays as a left back.
Cole began his career with Arsenal in 1999, going on to make 228 appearances and scoring nine goals. With Arsenal he won two Premier League titles, three FA Cups, was part of the "Invincibles" team of 2003-04 and was also a UEFA Champions League runner-up. In August 2006, after a protracted transfer saga, he completed a move to rival club Chelsea. Cole won further honours with Chelsea, including another Premier League title, four more FA Cups, a League Cup and a UEFA Champions League. He has won the FA Cup seven times, more than any other player in history.
Cole has been an England international since 2001 and played at the 2002, 2006 and 2010 World Cups, as well as Euro 2004. He was voted England Player of the Year in 2010. As of 2012 has won 93 caps, making him England's most capped full back and most capped black player.
Cole married singer Cheryl Cole (née Tweedy) in July 2006. They separated in February 2010; she divorced him in September 2010 after claims he had cheated on her with over five women.
Callum Henry McManaman (born 25 April 1991) is an English footballer who plays for Wigan Athletic, as a striker.
McManaman was born on 25 April 1991 in Knowsley, Merseyside. He grew up as an Everton supporter, and joined the club's youth system when he was seven years old. After being released by the club at the age of sixteen, he signed for Wigan Athletic on a free transfer in 2007. He made his debut for the reserves toward the end of the 2007–08 season. He became a regular in the reserve team during the second half of the following season, appearing ten times and scoring four goals. He then made his first team debut on 24 May 2009 in a Premier League match against Portsmouth, becoming Wigan's youngest ever player to play in the Premier League. In July 2009, he signed his first professional contract with the club. McManaman remained in the reserve team during the 2009–10 season, scoring twice in a 5–0 win against Burnley. Although he didn't appear in the first team, he impressed enough to be offered a contract extension.