The ex-Chelsea star on his Three Lions days, from wonder goals and WAGs to what went wrong under Fabio Capello
Interview Ed McCambridge
JOE COLE
You made your World Cup debut against Sweden in 2002, replacing Darius Vassell. Tell us about that moment…
It was really hectic. You come on and it’s so fleeting. It was brilliant to get on the pitch. At a World Cup, you can feel the importance of the game. I can still picture every touch and it was like, ‘Wow, I’m playing at a World Cup’. It was the culmination of a lifetime dream. It goes by quickly, as you’re in the moment, but that summer gave me wonderful memories.
You started for England at the 2006 World Cup. People said their ‘Golden Generation’ should go on and win a major tournament. Was it difficult dealing with that pressure?
We had so much club-level success, so many terrific players, so many captains and all-time greats of English football, so it was inevitable that expectations would be high. Ultimately, we were missing a key ingredient. We were unlucky sometimes, too, losing on penalties and seeing some big refereeing decisions go against us. It wasn’t meant to be.
Players have since said club rivalries during that period hindered international success. Would you agree with that?
I don’t think that was the main reason, but it was a part of the problem. Various England managers never properly addressed it. There would have been many ways you could have done, in terms of bringing players together or talking about how we felt. Our biggest issue was being behind other countries tactically. We had great players but the system wasn’t suited to international football, particularly in hot weather. We didn’t keep possession and ran ourselves ragged. We had the players to get a goal here and there, but that was often despite our tactics – we relied on somebody popping up with a bit of magic. That’s no way to win a tournament.
Talking of magic, your goal against Sweden in 2006 is regularly called one of the World Cup’s greatest. How often do you watch it back on YouTube?
[Laughs] Not as often as you might think! Of course that moment gets brought up a lot. As a footballer, if you’re lucky, you play 500 or so matches but only really get remembered for one or two moments. A goal like that, on the biggest stage, is something which lives on in the memory. It’s great to know people loved that moment as much as I did.
That 2006 World Cup ended with defeat to Portugal, with th
