Ashley Cole is hoping for a return to the LA Galaxy, this as the former English international’s contract is up at year’s end.
While not cut by the Galaxy as part of their year-end roster moves, there has been no announcement that Cole will return to the MLS club for 2018. The English international left back’s contract expires at the end of the calendar year.
Set to turn 37 years old later this month, Cole has played for clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Roma during his accolade-punctuated career. He has made 55 league appearances for the Galaxy since signing with the club 2016.
Speaking following an event in Harlem where Chelsea partnered to build a field for local youth team FC Harlem, Cole said he wants a return to LA in 2018 and that contract talks are underway.
“I’m in discussions with LA Galaxy,” Cole told Metro. “I hope to hear back from there in the next week or two. For sure I’ll be playing somewhere for another year.”
He also talked about his desire to stay in MLS, saying that “It’s certainly different in terms of a lifestyle [from Europe] but I still want to win. And to be able to do it with a big team like LA Galaxy would top it off. I’d like to stay here another year and win a title with them. That would top it off.”
Cole was joined at the event last week by fellow Chelsea legend Michael Essien. The two lent their support of a new field for FC Harlem, a project that has the backing of the English Premier League club as well as New York’s Department of Environmental Protection.
He sounded optimism of the growth of American soccer, noting the importance of clubs like FC Harlem in the game’s development. Cole said that he hopes clubs like FC Harlem can help train and mature more young talent in the wake of competition from football and basketball.
In Cole’s homeland, things are going at a fantastic rate for England’s youth teams. The nation took both the U-17 World Cup and the U-20 World Cup, moving the ball well and showing some serious star power. These results perhaps signal a golden generation on the cusp of maturity for the nation that invented the sport.
“I hope so, I think you look back now and they have quite the advantage of playing with the U-17s all the way up – which I didn’t do,” Cole said, referencing his own developmental path. “Hopefully that can be an advantage. We have a lot of good young talent now playing in the Premier League and abroad.”
