My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain on what drives sports stars to greatness. Joe Cole shot to fame at West Ham before winning three Premier League titles and two FA Cups with Chelsea. He also won 56 England caps and played at four major international tournaments. He looks back on his life and career with Kat Lucas.
I grew up on a council estate in north London. We didn’t have a lot, but we had a loving home and food on the table. I knew I was very lucky because some kids on our estate were really, really unfortunate, dad not there, maybe mum in a bad place. So I was already blessed. Then the fame comes along and people change towards you, people want from you all the time – and you can’t go “this is a bit weird”, because you’ve won the lottery, you know?
My dad wasn’t my biological dad. Finding that out at 10, that was a big thing to find out for a kid. But I never, ever felt like I was any different to my brother and sister. My dad wasn’t a football fan and personality wise, I’m more like my mum – I didn’t think I had many of my dad’s tendencies, but I’ve started realising how much of the morals and principles come from my dad – be kind, do the right thing, I don’t like bullies. You word is your word – my dad couldn’t read or write so he remembered everything.
I spent a day in a cell. I was 14 and a car was on offer for us to have a little drive around. I had a go and ended up as you do, going a little bit round the estate. Somebody saw a 14-year-old – and I looked about 12 – driving a car and called the police. I’d gone out to the Euston Road and back and ended up in the nick of Kentish Town Police Station. No charges were pressed because the guy [who offered us the car] came in, but things like that made me realise how lucky I am because I do have a wild side to me.
The opportunity came to go to [football centre] Lilleshall, [otherwise] I think there would have been more incidents of me doing stupid stuff like that because I’m f**king stupid sometimes. I don’t want to pretend I was this angel.
I want to be England manager. It’s a long way off, but you’ve got to have dreams. The life I’ve lived, you look at and think “how lucky was I?” So I think to myself why not? I know it’s absurd to people, I’m on TNT and I’ve not even started my coaching journey. I’ve got my badges but not from a serious perspective, but I’d love to be involved in a set-up.
Ray Wilkins was the best assistant manager I ever had because of how he related to people – there’s a lot of things like that overlooked in the modern game now, because everyone wants everything to be finite, data-driven.
Does it bother me that the Golden Generation didn’t win anything? The big one is winning the World Cup – there aren’t many people that do. We won it in ’66 – we’re going to win it again some time. Along that journey, certain mistakes have to be made for the next generation to do it – you have to pass the torch, pass on your knowledge, and at some point England are going to lift a trophy. And all of us players, we shouldn’t have any jealousy because we’ve all been part of that journey. I hope one day I’m alive to see us do it.
Gerrard didn’t always enjoy playing for England – I loved it. It’s different characters. He’s very private, Stevie. I understand why he didn’t like it, I really do. But I genuinely loved it, I just loved playing football, being around football – it was an absolute joy and a pleasure. Maybe too much of a joy and a pleasure.
I wasn’t a massive party animal as a player but I dipped my toes in and out a little bit. Sometimes I think, because my body started packing up in 2010, if I lived a life like James Milner or Jordan Henderson, I really admire the professionalism. I tell my kids that’s the right way to do it.
But there’s part of me that thinks, I liked all the stuff of being a footballer and going out. My mum and dad weren’t pushy parents, I’d come home and they’d be like “enjoy yourself, be a kid, go and make mistakes, chasing girls”. I did enjoy myself – I wouldn’t change that.
The best moment of my career was my goal against Man United to win the league in 2006. That just felt like bliss and heaven to me that day.
I had a great relationship with Jose Mourinho. If you look at it [Mourinho criticising me] through the lens of now, it looks horrendous, the back and forth, being questioned in public. It was a little bit more than it would be for some other players, but I think it’s what I needed at the time.
I think he’s a genius of a manager. People want me to go “it made me sad”, but it was just – it was annoying. I didn’t like it at times. But I always felt I had his trust, finals, semi-finals, big games I started. It was never personal.
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Sometimes the press could single me out. There was times, but there’s also times when I could do no wrong. If one of the big editors liked you, it would be favourable, if they didn’t it would go the other way. As long as you don’t start listening to it, the hype one side or the other, you’re OK.
Now players have to deal with the online nutters. Jude Bellingham, I think he’s not getting stick, he’s getting questioned. There’s a difference. But he has to deal with the online stuff from all the nutters. We never had to deal with that. I’d like to have some aspects of what they’ve got – and I wouldn’t like to have some aspects of it.
Joe Cole: Luxury Player is available from bookshops now and at geni.us/JoeCole
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