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Name:	Ashley Cole
Nationality:	English
Date of Birth:	20/12/1980
Height:	5' 8" (172cm)
Weight:	10st 8lbs (67.0kg)
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Clubs:	Crystal Palace (loan), Arsenal
Position:	Defender

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Chelsea's transfer deadline day signing in August 2006 took the total of England internationals in the squad to six and the number of England left-backs to two.

 

The Blues had lost a world class defender in William Gallas to Arsenal on the same day but made sure that was adequately compensated by the player frequently described as the best in his position.

 

A product of the Arsenal youth system, Ashley was born in east London and made his debut for the Gunners at the age of 18 in the Worthington Cup.

 

He spent a three-month loan period at Crystal Palace at the end of the 1999/2000 season, making 14 appearances and scoring one goal.

 

His progress was rewarded with his first Arsenal Premiership appearance in the final league game of the same season.

 

By the end of the following campaign, Cole had taken over as first choice left-back from Brazilian Silvinho and the next season was handed his first winners' medals as Arsenal secured the Premiership and FA Cup double.

 

He played all 90 minutes of Chelsea's 2-0 defeat by our London rivals in the Cup Final in Cardiff and made a total of 33 appearances in the two victorious competitions.

 

Cole was to taste the other side of a Chelsea v Arsenal result when on the losing side in our famous Champions League triumph at Highbury in April 2004, but by then the player had won a second FA Cup Final, in 2003 against Southampton.

 

He was also well on the way to his second Premiership title (playing 32 times in Arsenal's unbeaten league season of 2003/4) and had become an England international.

 

Having played for England at youth and Under 21 levels, Cole was named in Sven-Göran Eriksson's first squad and made his full international debut against Albania in March 2001.

 

He played all five England games at the World Cup in 2002 and for many people, was one of his nation's star performers during Euro 2004 in Portugal.

 

He was named in the all-star squad for the tournament. In total Cole has 52 caps for England.

 

A third FA Cup win was added in 2005, Cole scoring in the deciding penalty shoot-out against Man United.

 

Although his final Arsenal season saw him hampered by injuries, he recovered to start Arsenal's Champions League Final defeat by Barcelona and was an ever-present in England's run to the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals.

 

His athletic goal-line clearance against Ecuador was an enduring image of a low-key England campaign.

 

In that summer, Cole moved from the newspaper back pages to the front one when he married Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy.

 

He made his Chelsea debut against Werder Bremen at Stamford Bridge in September. His transfer had involved £5 million plus William Gallas going the other way.

 

As Chelsea increasingly switched to a narrow diamond midfield, surging runs from full-back were an important ploy but it when was defending against Cristiano Ronaldo at Old Trafford that Ashley enjoyed his finest Chelsea game of his opening campaign.

 

A fabulous athlete who loves to go forward, he admitted at the season's end that Blues fans had yet to see him at his very best, a series of small injures having hindered the settling process. Healthy competition with Wayne Bridge for the Chelsea and England left-back shirt is set to continue.