A tribute to Leighton Baines (Video)

It must be a right pain to be a very good practitioner at what you do but to live in a time when a true genius is operating in your field.

A writer operating at the same time as Shakespeare, a composer in the era of Mozart or a scientist in the same timeframe as Newton must know the feeling (conspiracy theories aside of course).

On a lesser note, footballers can have the same problem and Leighton Baines is one of those footballers.

Baines has been operating at a time when England have had probably their best ever left-back playing, one Ashley Cole.

Regardless of perceived personality issues (indeed, the one place where Baines would win a contest over Cole is in likeability), Cole is perhaps the one true world class player that has performed consistently for England over the last decade.

As a result, last night was Baines' first cap in a competitive game and he marked it with a goal. Not bad going that.

In celebration, here are some of the likeable Scouser's best bits from a very good career so far at Wigan and Everton and, at the age of 27, he is just coming into his prime.

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