Ashley Cole leaves England Under-21 role after five years alongside Lee Carsley

Ashley Cole has walked away from the England Under-21 set-up, ending a five-year association with the side, the Football Association has confirmed.

The former Chelsea and Arsenal full-back spent half a decade as part of Lee Carsley’s backroom staff, a period that brought back-to-back European Under-21 titles as the Young Lions re-established themselves as the continent’s dominant young side.

Carsley was quick to pay tribute to his departing lieutenant, praising the influence the 45-year-old had on the players under his charge. He described Cole as having made a positive and inspirational contribution, and underlined the part he played in both European triumphs as well as the current qualifying campaign, crediting his tactical and technical expertise. Carsley added that he was certain his colleague would go on to enjoy further success in whatever direction his coaching career now takes him.

A coaching career that kept crossing borders

Cole’s route into the dugout has been anything but conventional. He completed his coaching qualifications at Derby County under Frank Lampard, a former England team-mate, before returning to Chelsea to work in the academy at Stamford Bridge. Further spells followed on the coaching staffs at Everton and Birmingham City, the latter during Wayne Rooney’s turbulent reign, and he also assisted Carsley when the interim boss took charge of the senior England side in 2024.

That breadth of experience made him one of the most decorated assistant coaches in the English game — yet he has consistently sought challenges beyond these shores. In March he accepted the head coach role at Serie B side Cesena, having grown discouraged by the opportunities within the English football pyramid to break into management. That appointment proved brief, with Cole departing the Italian club in June following discussions with the sporting director over a shift in the club’s strategy.

The brilliant career that preceded it

For those who watched Cole in his pomp, none of this will surprise. He collected 107 caps for England across a 19-year playing career, and for long stretches was widely regarded as the finest left-back in the world.

His trophy haul was substantial. Across spells at Arsenal and Chelsea he claimed three English top-flight crowns, lifted both the Champions League and the Europa League, won seven FA Cup winner’s medals and secured a League Cup — silverware amassed not simply through longevity but through sustained excellence at the very highest level.

What next for Cole?

The immediate question now is what Cole, who retired from playing in 2019, does with his future. His Cesena foray suggested a man keen to stand on his own two feet as a number one, even if the circumstances of that exit were not entirely of his own making.

For the England Under-21 setup, his departure marks the end of a hugely successful chapter. Carsley’s side have become the model for talent development across European football, and Cole was a significant part of that project. Whoever moves into the vacancy inherits a team that has learned to win — and the bar that has been set.

The FA will now begin the search for a successor, with the current qualifying campaign already under way. Cole, meanwhile, departs with his reputation enhanced, a coaching career that few could have predicted taking shape the way it has, and the gratitude of a generation of young England defenders he helped shape.

Source: BBC Sport (original report)