Joe Cole Opens up on Life in the North American Soccer

Tampa Bay Rowdies midfielder Joe Cole says that he is hoping to train with his former club Chelsea in order to keep up his fitness levels during the MLS off-season.


The former Chelsea winger made the switch to North American football. Even though he is not playing in the MLS, Cole is just happy to receive the experience of playing in the North American league. The club are part of the North American Soccer League, which is a division just lower than the MLS, and the performances of Cole have earned him a nomination for the MVP award.

Even though the former Chelsea star did not win the award, it has been a successful transition from the rigours of playing in English football. Cole says that he has adapted extremely well to life in North America with his family who are just a couple of minutes away from Disneyland. Since the new season does not start until after a few months, players like Cole need to be training on a regular basis in order to keep up their fitness.

After having been used to playing non-stop football throughout the year, players like Cole simply cannot afford to sit idle for the next few months.

As a result, Cole says that he is planning to train with West Ham or Chelsea. “I’m going to start training this week, maybe to get back to West Ham or Chelsea for a bit of training and just see how the bodies feels. I wouldn’t go there to play, but just go there to train. It was good, although a bit of an eye opener. The people there were so nice – we’d get beaten at home and I’d be raging coming off the pitch. But people were so positive, saying how good I’d played, when I hadn’t,” said Cole.