Ashley Cole

Ashley Cole (born 20 December 1980 in Stepney, London) is an English professional footballer and currently playing as a left back for Chelsea and the English national football team.

Club career

Cole started his career as teenager by joining his local club, Arsenal, whom he had supported as a child. He signed as a professional on 25 February 2000. He had made his debut for the first team together with Jermaine Pennant as a striker on 30 November 1999 against Middlesbrough at the age of 18, and his Premier League debut for Arsenal came on 14 May 2000 against Newcastle. Before he fully broke into the Arsenal side, he spent part of the 1999–2000 season on loan at Crystal Palace, where he played 14 league matches and scored one goal, a long-range half-volley against Blackburn Rovers. After an injury to Sylvinho, Arsenal's established Brazilian left-back, in autumn 2000, Cole came on as his replacement, and remained first-choice even after Sylvinho's recovery.

With Arsenal, he won the Premier League twice (in 2002 and 2004), and the FA Cup three times (in 2002, 2003 and 2005, scoring in the penalty shootout in the final of the latter). Although injured for much of the 2005–06 season, he recovered in time to play in Arsenal's UEFA Champions League Final defeat to Barcelona at the end of the season. In total he made 228 first-team appearances for Arsenal, scoring 9 goals.

Transfer saga

In 2005, Cole made inappropriate contact with league rivals Chelsea over a possible move, without alerting Arsenal to the fact, in a case of "tapping-up". Found guilty, he was fined £100,000 by the Premier League on 2 June 2005 for a meeting in a hotel in January 2005 between himself, the Chelsea manager José Mourinho, Chelsea chief executive, Peter Kenyon, and his agent Jonathan Barnett. An appeal in August 2005 did not reject the guilty verdict, but his fine was reduced to £75,000. Chelsea were also fined £300,000 and Mourinho was fined £200,000, reduced on appeal in August 2005 to £75,000. Barnett's licence was suspended for 18 months and he was also fined £100,000.

Cole signed a one year extension to his contract on 18 July 2005, but a year later departed from the club in acrimonious circumstances. On 15 July 2006, Cole launched a verbal attack on Arsenal; in his autobiography, quoted in The Sun, Cole claimed that the Arsenal board had treated him as a "scapegoat" and that they had "fed him to the sharks" over the tapping up affair, disregarding the fact that Cole himself could have avoided the whole affair by not discussing a possible move to a rival club behind Arsenal's back, and the fact that Arsenal were legally obliged to punish Cole for his illegal courting of Chelsea. Cole was deliberately left out of Arsenal's 2006–07 team photograph, refuelling press speculation that he would become a Chelsea player.

On 28 July, Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein had confirmed that Arsenal and Chelsea had been in "civil talks" about the player. Chelsea insisted they would not raise their £16million bid for the left back, but Arsenal held out for at a higher valuation of £25million. Negotiations continued throughout August and looked to be heading for deadlock, but eventually Cole signed for Chelsea on 31 August for a fee of £5million, with William Gallas also going the other way. The deal was closed after the transfer window had officially ended, and was not confirmed until an hour and a half after the deadline had passed.

Cole was vilified by Arsenal fans following his decision to leave the club, with many alleging that he had moved to Chelsea for the sake of a higher wage. He is now irreverently known as "Cashley" to most football fans because of this. The hostility toward Cole is mostly fuelled by comments made in his biography over Arsenal not willing to inflate his wage to one he deemed proportionate to his skills, and the fact that he almost crashed his car in anger when told the board would not bend to his demands.

Chelsea

 Cole was given the number 3 shirt at Chelsea, and made his first appearance for the club as a substitute for Wayne Bridge in their 2–1 win over Charlton Athletic on 9 September. He also issued a public statement deemed "staggering in both its arrogance and ignorance", saying he "forgave" Arsenal for how he felt he was treated during his time there. However, he was not forgiven by Arsenal's fans, as they dubbed him "Cashley" and waved fake £20 notes with his face when Chelsea met Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on 12 December.

On 31 January 2007, Cole suffered a serious knee injury in the 3–0 victory over Blackburn Rovers in a Premier League game at Stamford Bridge, although after a scan it was revealed to be not as bad as first thought, with Chelsea optimistic that he would return before the end of the 2006–07 season. Cole did indeed make a return at the end of the season, playing in the last twelve minutes of the 2007 FA Cup Final at the new Wembley Stadium against Manchester United. Chelsea emerged triumphant, 1-0 after extra-time with a goal scored by Didier Drogba, to win the 2007 FA Cup.

In 2007-2008, Cole was reportedly one of the players upset when Jose Mourinho was relieved of his position as Chelsea manager. He was dropped in favour of Wayne Bridge for the 2008 League Cup final, which Chelsea lost 2-1 to Spurs. However, Cole scored his first Chelsea goal in Chelsea's very next game, on 1 March 2008, the fourth goal in a 4-0 away victory against West Ham. On 19 March 2008, Cole was involved in a controversial incident in a Premier League game against Tottenham at White Hart Lane where he committed a dangerous high tackle on Tottenham's Alan Hutton. Although it is a widely held view that Cole should have received a straight red card, referee Mike Riley gave Cole a yellow card. Moreover, Cole caused even more disgust as he turned his back on the referee and shouted abuse before receiving the card, sparking not only more outrage at Cole's continuing insubordinate behaviour, but also debate within the sports media over the game's rules on dissent towards officials.

Ashley was voted Chelsea's players' player of the season for 2008-2009, despite scoring only once for Chelsea in the final game of the season in a 3-2 win against Sunderland.

International career

Cole has played for England at youth and senior levels. He was capped for the England U-20 team at the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship alongside Stuart Taylor, Peter Crouch, Andrew Johnson and Matthew Etherington. However, the team finished bottom of their group, suffering three defeats without scoring any goals. He also made four appearances for England under-21s, scoring once.

Cole made his senior England début against Albania, on 28 March 2001. He played for England at the 2002 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2004, and was named as one of four England players in the all-star squad for the latter tournament. Cole was also an ever-present for England in the 2006 FIFA World Cup; in their second round match against Ecuador he made a crucial block, deflecting Carlos Tenorio's shot onto the crossbar. The match ended with England winning 1–0, but England were knocked out on penalties by Portugal in the quarter-finals. By the end of 2008, Cole had achieved 68 caps for England, all of which were starting appearances.

Personal life

Since 15 July 2006, he has been married to Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole. They had been together since September 2004. In January 2008, the couple almost separated after allegations were made that Cole had affairs with three other women, however he disputes the allegations, and has stayed with Cheryl.

Cole released an autobiography in 2006, My Defence, which sold only 4,000 copies in the first six weeks of release. Cole's former teammate, Jens Lehmann, criticised Cole for writing an autobiography when he was only 25.

While researching for his autobiography, Cole discovered he is a distant cousin of the pop star Mariah Carey.