Ashley Cole (born 20 December 1980, Whitechapel, London, England) is an English footballer of Barbadian descent. Cole plays left back for Chelsea and for the England national team, a position from which he often uses his strong pace to try and support the forward players.Arsenal
Cole started his career at his local club Arsenal as a teenager. He signed as a professional on 25 February 2000. He had made his debut for the first team as a striker on 30 November 1999 against Middlesbrough at the age of 18, although this was his only appearance of that season. Before he fully broke into the Arsenal side, he spent part of the 1999รข€“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). 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.
Personal life
In 2005 he became engaged to Cheryl Tweedy, a member of the British chart-topping act Girls Aloud. He and Tweedy were married at Wrotham Park, just north of Barnet, Hertfordshire on 15 July 2006. The two currently live in a mansion in Hampstead that used to belong to Patrick Vieira.In 2006, Cole sued the News of the World and The Sun newspapers for libel after they printed reports of a Premiership footballer and a music DJ engaged in a "homosexual orgy", even though Cole was not specifically named in any of the stories; however, a pixellated photograph of Cole with his likeness removed was printed. Both the News of the World and The Sun later retracted the allegations after legal pressure and paid an undisclosed amount of damages to Cole.
Cole has recently released an autobiography, My Defence, which sold only 4,000 copies in the first six weeks of release. Based on the advance he received, it would require 75,000 copies to be sold before the publisher would break even. Cole's book has been subject to criticism from several Arsenal players, including Jens Lehmann,; at the same time, Arsenal fans launched a campaign on the world wide web encouraging people to purchase a book by former Arsenal player Perry Groves, in an attempt to outsell Cole's.
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Ashley Cole
Ashley Cole
Ashley Cole
Ashley Cole
Ashley Cole
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