Ashley Cole

Ashley Cole (born 20 December 1980, Stepney, London) is an English footballer of Barbadian descent. Cole plays left back for Chelsea and for the England national team, a position from which he often uses his strong pace to try and support the forward players.



In 2005 he became engaged to Cheryl Tweedy, a member of the British manufactured pop act Girls Aloud. He and Tweedy were married at Wrotham Park, just north of Barnet, Hertfordshire on 15 July 2006. The two currently live in a mansion in Hampstead that used to belong to Patrick Vieira.

In 2006, Cole sued the News of the World and The Sun newspapers for libel after they printed reports of a Premiership footballer and a music DJ engaged in a "homosexual orgy", even though Cole was not specifically named in any of the stories; however, a pixellated photograph of Cole with his likeness removed was printed. Both the News of the World and The Sun later retracted the allegations after legal pressure and paid an undisclosed amount of damages to Cole.

Cole has recently released an autobiography, My Defence, which sold only 4,000 copies in the first six weeks of release. Cole's book was subject to criticism from his former team-mate Jens Lehmann; at the same time, Arsenal fans launched a campaign on the world wide web encouraging people to purchase a book by former Arsenal player Perry Groves, in an attempt to outsell Cole's.