Andy Cole

From Free net encyclopedia

Andrew Alexander Cole (born 15 October, 1971 in Nottingham) is an English footballer who plays as a striker, and is one of the highest scoring players in the game's history.

Currently ranked second in the all time scoring charts of the FA Premier League, Cole currently plays for Manchester City F.C. having joined them from Fulham F.C. at the start of the 2005-06 season. Cole has the distinction of being one of the only players in England to have swept all possible honours in the English game, including the PFA Young Player of the Year award, as well as the coveted UEFA Champions League title. Cole has also been capped 15 times for England between 1995 and 2001, scoring once.

1 Arsenal, Fulham and Bristol City
2 Newcastle United
3 Manchester United
4 Blackburn Rovers
5 Fulham
6 Manchester City
7 England
8 Clubs & records

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Arsenal, Fulham and Bristol City

On leaving school in the summer of 1988, Andy Cole joined Arsenal F.C. and made his only appearance for the club as a substitute against Sheffield United F.C. at Bramall Lane during a league game in December 1990.

The following season he was loaned to Fulham in the Third Division, where he scored 3 goals in 13 games, before being sold to Second Division Bristol City in a £500,000 deal - at the time he was the Ashton Gate club's most expensively signed player.

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Newcastle United

Having proved himself as a competent young goalscorer with Bristol City, Cole was quickly one of the hottest prospects in England and his name was regularly linked with Premiership clubs throughout the 1992-93 season.

In February 1993, Division One leaders Newcastle United F.C. splashed out a then club record £1.75million for his services. He then scored 12 goals in as many league games to confirm Newcastle as Division One champions, although 25-goal David Kelly was the club's top scorer.

After Kelly was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., manager Kevin Keegan brought in Peter Beardsley as Cole's strike-partner for the 1993-94 Premiership campaign. The red-hot Cole scored 34 goals in 40 games during Newcastle's first Premiership season as they finished third and qualified for the UEFA Cup. Cole scored a total of 41 goals in all competitions - breaking the club's goalscoring record which had been set by Hughie Gallacher nearly 70 years earlier. The PFA voted 22-year-old Cole as Young Player of the Year for that season.

Cole then scored 9 Premiership goals in 18 games for Newcastle after the start of the 1994-95 season, and also scored a hat-trick against Royal Antwerp in the UEFA Cup.

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Manchester United

On 10 January, 1995, Cole was suddenly sold to Manchester United F.C. for a deal worth £7million - with £6million cash plus £1million-rated Keith Gillespie going in the opposite direction. He scored 12 goals in his first 18 Premiership games for United, but suffered two near misses at West Ham United F.C. on the final day of the season that would have kept the Premiership trophy at Old Trafford - it went to Blackburn Rovers F.C. instead.

A week later he was cup-tied for the FA Cup final which United lost to Everton F.C. Some United fans believe that United could have won the final had Cole not been disqualified by a Third Round appearance for Newcastle.

Cole was slated by even United's own fans throughout the 1995-96 season, although he did score in four successive games during the winter and was in the first 11 for most first-team games. Some fans were even calling for 21-year-old Paul Scholes to replace Cole as Eric Cantona's regular strike-partner.

But Cole still collected a Premiership title winners medal and played in their FA Cup final victory to become part of England's first ever side to win the double twice.

The arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - and two broken legs suffered in a reserve game - restricted Cole's first-team chances in 1996-97, but he still played in 20 Premiership games (10 as a substitute) and qualified for another Premiership title medal. Before the season began, he had been offered to Blackburn Rovers as part-exchange in a £12,000,000 deal which would have brought Alan Shearer to Old Trafford. But Shearer opted for Newcastle instead.

Cole was the joint top goalscorer in the Premiership during the 1997-98 season with 18 goals, but United finished trophyless for only the second time in 9 seasons and some fans were still slating him for not converting his goal-scoring chances too many times, despite his goals-per-game and chances-per-goal ratios superior, which were actually superior to many of the players deemed better than him.

Cole faced competition from Dwight Yorke, Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer during the 1998-99 season but still played a big part in their unique treble of the Premiership title, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League.

He was United's top scorer again in 1999-00 with 19 goals in 28 Premiership games which saw him collect his fourth Premiership title medal in five seasons. Another title followed in 2000-01, although the real star of United's season was the veteran Teddy Sheringham, with whom he reportedly did not see eye to eye with.

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Blackburn Rovers

The arrival of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Juan Sebastian Veron counted against Cole's first-team chances in the 2001-02 season, and just before the end of 2001 he was sold to Blackburn Rovers for £8million. Within two months of arriving, he had collected a League Cup winners medal and in the space of seven seasons had won all three domestic trophies plus a European trophy.

There were no trophies the following season but he was still able to help Blackburn achieve automatic UEFA Cup qualification, being helped by his old United strike-partner Dwight Yorke who had joined the club in July 2002.

Cole had a frustrating season in 2003-04 as Rovers slid into the bottom half of the Premiership when they had been expected to feature in the race for European qualification.

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Fulham

13 years after spending three months on loan at Fulham, Cole returned to Craven Cottage for the 2004-05 season and was the club's top scorer after joining them on a one-year contract. But he did not sign a new contract at the end of the season and made himself free to leave.

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Manchester City

Cole signed for Manchester City at the beginning of the 2005-06 season and has been one of their key players in Stuart Pearce's side's hunt for a European place.

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England

Despite first being capped for England in 1995, he had earned only 15 caps by the time he announced his retirement from international football after failing to be selected for the Template:Wc squad. He scored only one goal for England, in a World Cup qualifying match against Albania in March 2001.

In his career he has scored a total of 185 premier league goals, 2nd behind Alan Shearer who has 257 goals. Thierry Henry (who plays for Arsenal F.C.) is in 3rd place, behind Cole.

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