Wayne is a left-back or left-sided midfield player who had six seasons in the first team at local club Southampton before he signed for Chelsea a few weeks after playing for Saints in the 2003 FA Cup Final. He was then 22. He had once featured in 113 consecutive Premier League games at Southampton but injury interrupted his second season at Stamford Bridge. He came back to make 12 Premier League appearances on loan at Fulham, plus a further 39 for the Blues, before transferring to Manchester City in 2008.
While still a Saints player, Wayne had collected eight England Under-21 caps and made his senior bow when Sven-Goran Eriksson chose him to start against Holland in an Amsterdam friendly on 13 February 2002. He appeared twice in the World Cup Finals in the Far East, both times as a substitute, and scored his first England goal in a 6-1 victory over Iceland at the City of Manchester Stadium in the ‘Summer Tournament’ of 2004. Emile Heskey headed on Nicky Butt’s chipped pass for Wayne to shoot home and make it 5-1. He became England’s first-choice left-back again midway through 2009-10 when Ashley Cole was injured.