My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain on what drives sports stars to greatness. Joe Cole shot to fame at West Ham before winning three Premier League titles and two FA Cups with Chelsea. He also won 56 England caps and played at four major international tournaments. He looks back on his life and career with Kat Lucas.

I grew up on a council estate in north London . We didn’t have a lot, but we had a loving home and food on the table. I knew I was very lucky because some kids on our estate were really, really unfortunate, dad not there, maybe mum in a bad place. So I was already blessed. Then the fame comes along and people change towards you, people want from you all the time – and you can’t go “this is a bit weird”, because you’ve won the lottery, you know?

My

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