Ashley Cole has landed his first managerial role after being appointed head coach of Serie B side Cesena.
The former Chelsea, Arsenal and England full-back has been developing as a coach since retiring in 2019, with his first role coming straight after hanging up the boots at Derby under ex-Blues teammate Frank Lampard.
Cole has since gone on to join up with Lampard as an academy coach at Chelsea and again in a first-team capacity at Everton, before joining Wayne Rooney’s staff at Birmingham.
He then took a position assisting Lee Carsley as interim England manager following the departure of Gareth Southgate in the summer of 2024, leaving Birmingham in September of that year to link up with the FA on a full-time basis.
Now he has made an unexpected move to Italy's second tier, taking the reins at Cesena, who sit eighth in the table and sacked Michele Mignani on Saturday.
Cole has signed a short-term deal until the end of June but with the option to extend "upon the fulfilment of certain conditions".
A statement on the Cesena website read: "The entire Cesena FC family is thrilled to welcome manager Ashley Cole to lead the Bianconeri first team and extends a warm welcome to him and his staff in Cesena, wishing them all the best of luck in this new adventure."
Cole will be assisted by former Chelsea academy coach Jack Mesure.
He will hope to enjoy similar success to Cesc Fabregas, another player to cross the Arsenal-Chelsea divide in their career, who has been thriving as manager of fast-rising Como.
The ex-defender has previously expressed his desire to make a name for himself as a coach, to the point where he wants people to put his illustrious playing career second.
“I want people now to say, ‘Ashley Cole, the coach’,” he told The Telegraph. “Not, ‘Ashley Cole, the footballer’. It has been quite hard but I think I have done enough on the training pitch.
“Ashley Cole the player is done. But Ashley Cole the coach, he is doing alright, or whatever it looks like.”
Cole won three Premier League titles, seven FA Cups and a Champions League during his time with Arsenal and Chelsea.
Additional reporting from PA
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