Carlton Cole

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Carlton Cole
Personal information
Date of birth November 12, 1983 (age 23)
Place of birth Surrey, England
Height 6 ft 3 in
Nickname Coley, Darkness
Position Striker
Club information
Current club West Ham United
Number 12
Professional clubs*
Years Club Apps (goals)
2001-2006
2002-2003 loan
2003-2004 loan
2004-2005 loan
2006-		 Chelsea
Wolves
Charlton Athletic
Aston Villa
West Ham United		 25 (4)
7 (1)
21 (4)
27 (3)
9 (1)
National team**
2003-2005 England U21 15 (4)

* Professional club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 20:24, 12 November 2006 (UTC).
** National team caps and goals correct
as of 2006-07-06.

Carlton Cole (born November 12, 1983 in Croydon, London, England) is a football player who currently plays for West Ham United. He was brought up in West London and attended Chiswick Community School. Cole is of Nigerian & Sierra Leonean descent via his parents but rejected the chance to play for either of the national sides.

Cole made his Chelsea debut on April 6, 2002 as a substitute for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in a 3-0 victory against Everton. He went on loan to Wolverhampton Wanderers for five weeks through November 2002 and January 2003, playing five games before returning to Chelsea to conclude the season. He scored the winner against Sunderland with an incredible goal on his left foot towards the end of that season. He was again loaned to Charlton Athletic where he scored 4 goals in 21 appearances. He spent the 2004/05 season on loan at Aston Villa, where his scoring ratio was once again modest.

He returned to Chelsea in summer 2005 where he appeared in pre-season friendlies, but seemed destined to play little part in their first team fixtures unless injury struck either of their more famous forwards, Didier Drogba and Hernán Crespo. He was a regular member of the England Under 21 side, scoring 4 goals in 15 appearances.

Though Cole is excellent in the air and a useful target man, he has been criticised for not doing enough work defensively, and is often let down by a clumsy first touch. He is also not particularly pacy or well-versed in off-the-ball movement, which has made him ill-suited to Chelsea's style of play under José Mourinho which emphasises on counter-attacking and springing opposing offside traps. Former Chelsea team-mate Mario Stanic commented that Carlton was a hot prospect for Chelsea when they were a top-six club, but became marginalised when the club was taken over by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and became able to afford internationally renowned forwards like Drogba, Crespo, and Mateja Kežman.

Following the captures of Andriy Shevchenko and Salomon Kalou in the summer of 2006 Cole had little option but to move elsewhere in search of first-team opportunities. On 5 July 2006, four years after making his Chelsea debut, Cole left Chelsea for an undisclosed fee to sign a 4 year deal at fellow London club West Ham United. He will compete with Marlon Harewood, Dean Ashton, Bobby Zamora, Teddy Sheringham and Carlos Tévez for a place in the Hammers' attack. Cole scored just 24 seconds into his competitive debut for the Hammers after coming on as a substitute in injury time to seal a 3-1 home win against Charlton Athletic on 19 August 2006, the opening day of the 2006-07 Premiership season.

[edit] External links


West Ham United F.C. - Current Squad

1 Carroll | 2 Mears | 3 Konchesky | 4 Gabbidon | 5 Ferdinand | 6 McCartney | 7 Dailly | 8 Sheringham | 9 Ashton | 10 Harewood | 11 Etherington | 12 Cole | 14 Pantsil | 15 Benayoun | 16 Mascherano | 17 Mullins | 18 Spector | 19 Collins | 20 Reo-Coker | 21 Green | 23 Walker | 24 Noble | 25 Zamora | 26 Newton | 29 Bowyer | 30 Tomkins | 31 Stokes | 32 Tévez | Manager: Curbishley
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