Joe Cole: what he's doing now

From prodigy to pundit

Few English players carried the weight of expectation Joe Cole did as a teenager at West Ham. Often likened to Paul Gascoigne, he broke into the Hammers' first team at 17 and was club captain by 21, before a £6.6 million move took him to Chelsea in 2003. There he became a key part of Jose Mourinho's early title-winning sides, scoring in the Premier League-clinching win over Manchester United in 2006 and racking up seven trophies across seven seasons at Stamford Bridge.

His career wound down through spells at Liverpool, Lille, a second stint at West Ham, Aston Villa and Coventry City, before a move to Tampa Bay Rowdies in America's NASL. It was there, in June 2018, that Cole first stepped into coaching, taking on an assistant coach role while still turning out as a player. He retired from playing for good that November.

Back at Chelsea, in a different role

After hanging up his boots, Cole returned to the club where he made his name, taking up a coaching role at Chelsea. It's a natural next chapter for a player whose vision, dribbling and creativity once drew comparisons from Pelé himself, who said Cole had "the skills of a Brazilian" during his Chelsea days.

Alongside his coaching work, Cole has moved into broadcasting, appearing as a pundit on TNT Sports, where his insight into the modern game draws on more than two decades inside the Premier League and England set-ups, including three World Cups and a European Championship.

One more game, for old times' sake

Cole's connection to playing the game itself hasn't entirely faded. In April 2021, he briefly came out of retirement to turn out for Belstone, a club in the Hertfordshire Senior County League Premier Division managed by his friend Aaron Lincoln. Cole played the first half of a Premier Division Cup tie away to Harefield United Reserves, a match Belstone won 2–1. He has continued to train with the club on occasion and has made further appearances in pre-season friendlies since - a low-key postscript for a player once tipped to be the future of English football.

It's a fitting image, in some ways: the boy once compared to Gascoigne and courted by United as a teenager, still lacing up his boots for fun on a non-league pitch, decades after his Chelsea and England days made him a household name.