"You grow up, you become a dad, but you're still a footballer. And then, all of a sudden, it stops but your whole identity is still wrapped up in it. The former West Ham, Chelsea and England footballer, a gifted maverick who always felt a man out of time, playing a game years ahead of most of his contemporaries, smiles when I ask how old he feels now: Fortyfour."
"Cole was a teenager from Camden, living on a council estate, when he was splashed across the front page of the Sunday People. The headline roared: 5,000 A Week And He Is Just 16! As he notes in his evocative new book, that inaccurate article made people think he was spoilt, overpaid and had too much too soon. The truth was that I could have earned many multiples of that if my parents had manipulated the interest in me from every big club in England."
"I remember a moment at West Ham when I was 18 and I can still picture the fellow's face. He wore a black leather coat and he was screaming abuse at me at Upton Park. He was in his mid40s and spit was coming out of his mouth. People don't understand that footballers need a certain maturity to deal with that."
Joe Cole became publicly visible at 16 and carried the footballer identity through adulthood, fatherhood and beyond. A sensational front-page headline claimed high pay at 16, generating perceptions of being spoilt and overpaid. The financial reality differed, and marketplace interest could have been exploited by his parents. Public attention altered others' behaviour toward him and exposed him to abuse, including a violent incident at Upton Park when he was 18. He experienced exceptional early demand, including Sir Alex Ferguson offering a mascot role at 13. Cole matured emotionally quickly as a footballer but faced identity challenges when his playing career ended.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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