Another Chelsea export to the United States is dominating his league. Seven goals, seven assists and 22 games into his North American Soccer League career, Joe Cole is a finalist for the league’s most valuable player award, the Golden Ball.
The 35-year old Joe Cole led the Rowdies with assists (7), shots (39), chances created (51 – league high) and crosses (119). His seven goals placed him second on the team, as the Rowdies finished in sixth place this season.
Joe Cole arrived at Chelsea in 2003 from West Ham. After leaving Chelsea in 2010 at age 29, he bounced around a number of clubs in England and spent one year on loan at Lille in Ligue 1.
Cole put a slightly different twist on the usual twilight program. He came to the United States to play for the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the North American Soccer League, not Major League Soccer.
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The NASL is technically America’s second-tier league but, well, it’s complicated. Signing a player like Cole was a major coup for the league and the Rowdies. Tampa Bay Rowdies owner Bill Edwards announced Cole’s arrival with American-underdog swagger.
"Cole has appeared in more World Cups than Gary Lineker, won more EPL Championships than Bryan Robson and more FA Cups than David Beckham. It’s a career he can be proud of, and on top of that, he is a great guy. – SI.com"
During his seven years at Chelsea Cole was part of the squads that won three Premier League titles, two FA Cups, 2 League Cups and Community Shield and reached the finals of the Champions League. On top of the team trophies, he was Chelsea’s player of the year in 2008.
Cole had 56 caps for England. He scored 10 goals for the Three Lions, including a goal and an assist against Sweden in the 2006 World Cup. He scored 39 goals in 282 appearances for Chelsea.
Cole is obviously not the only ex-Chelsea and ex-West Ham player topping the competition in the United States. Cole’s career path mirrors Frank Lampard’s. Cole came to Chelsea several years after Lampard, and then went to America several years after Super Frank.
Much like Lampard and Didier Drogba, Joe Cole’s age is not slowing him down in the United States. Aside from his dominant statistics for the Rowdies and the NASL, he also scored this golazo in July as the Rowdies blanked Puerto Rico FC.
Just as Chelsea’s academy has become a de factor feeder program for Vitesse and the Bundesliga, Chelsea’s first team is becoming ripe recruiting grounds for American leagues. Who will be next to join both Cole’s, Lampard and Drogba in the States?
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