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Saturday, May 1, 2010

Ashley Cole English professional footballer

Ashley Cole (born 20 December 1980) is an English professional footballer, currently playing for Chelsea in the Premier League and the English national team. He plays as a left-back.

Cole began his career with Arsenal in 1999, going on to make 228 appearances, scoring 9 goals for the club, and winning two Premier League titles, three FA Cups and a runners-up medal from the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final. In August 2006, after a protracted transfer saga, he completed the move to rival club Chelsea in exchange for £5m plus defender William Gallas. Cole is a regular in the Chelsea first-team and won a second Champions League runners-up medal in 2008.

Cole married Cheryl Tweedy in July 2006; they separated in February 2010.

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 World Cup and 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 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.

He made his 77th appearance for England on 10 October 2009 in the 1-0 defeat by Ukraine in the World Cup qualifiers. He is now just two caps short of matching the record of 79 caps by a black English international (John Barnes, who appeared for England from 1983 to 1995).