‘At 16, a national newspaper front page said I was on £5,000 a week. It wasn’t true. It was very difficult to deal with and it really changed the course of my life. It attracted a different kind of attention’ Joe Cole on the ‘nonsense story’

Joe Cole.

Joe Cole was box office. From the time he burst into the collective consciousness of English football, he was destined for the headlines.

Cole spent 13 years on the books at West Ham United and was a target for other clubs as soon as he turned professional.