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Carlton Cole (born November 12, 1983 in Croydon, London, England) is a football player who currently plays for West Ham United. He was brought up in West London and attended Chiswick Community School. Cole is of Nigerian & Sierra Leonean descent via his parents but rejected the chance to play for either of the national sides.

Cole made his Chelsea debut on April 6, 2002 as a substitute for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in a 3-0 victory against Everton. He went on loan to Wolverhampton Wanderers for five weeks through November 2002 and January 2003, playing five games before returning to Chelsea to conclude the season. He scored the winner against Sunderland with an incredible goal on his left foot towards the end of that season. He was again loaned to Charlton Athletic where he scored 4 goals in 21 appearances. He spent the 2004/05 season on loan at Aston Villa, where his scoring ratio was once again modest.

He returned to Chelsea in summer 2005 where he appeared in pre-season friendlies, but seemed destined to play little part in their first team fixtures unless injury struck either of their more famous forwards, Didier Drogba and Hernán Crespo. He was a regular member of the England Under 21 side, scoring 4 goals in 15 appearances.

Though Cole is excellent in the air and a useful target man, he has been criticised for not doing enough work defensively, and is often let down by a clumsy first touch. He is also not particularly pacy or well-versed in off-the-ball movement, which has made him ill-suited to Chelsea's style of play under José Mourinho which emphasises on counter-attacking and springing opposing offside traps. Former Chelsea team-mate Mario Stanic commented that Carlton was a hot prospect for Chelsea when they were a top-six club, but became marginalised when the club was taken over by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and became able to afford internationally renowned forwards like Drogba, Crespo, and Mateja Kežman.

Following the captures of Andriy Shevchenko and Salomon Kalou in the summer of 2006 Cole had little option but to move elsewhere in search of first-team opportunities. On 5 July 2006, four years after making his Chelsea debut, Cole left Chelsea for an undisclosed fee to sign a 4 year deal at fellow London club West Ham United. He will compete with Marlon Harewood, Dean Ashton, Bobby Zamora, Teddy Sheringham and Carlos Tévez for a place in the Hammers' attack. Cole scored just 24 seconds into his competitive debut for the Hammers after coming on as a substitute in injury time to seal a 3-1 home win against Charlton Athletic on 19 August 2006, the opening day of the 2006-07 Premiership season.

Bailiffs visited West Ham United's training ground in Chadwell Heath, Essex, on Monday February 26th 2007 after allegations of non-payment of £800 in Central London Congestion Charge fees. Cole refused to cough up, telling pals he is innocent as he was not driving his car when it passed through the congestion zone. West Ham assistant manager Keith Peacock was sent to turn the bailiffs away when they arrived just before training at 10.30am.

• Carlton Cole career stats at Soccerbase
• Profile at 4thegame.com
• Profile at premierleague.com
• Photos and stats at sporting-heroes.net
• Chelsea's latest team news on fotballservice.com
• News Article from Thesun.co.uk