Larnell James Cole (born 9 March 1993) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a midfielder for Warrington Town. Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, Cole began his career with Manchester United, before joining Fulham in January 2014. He had loan spells at

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

and

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional ...

before moving to

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

in 2017.

Club career

Manchester United

Cole arrived as a schoolboy at Manchester United, before coming through the academy. A notable game came in 2011, when he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against rivals Manchester City in a 6–1 victory in the Premier Academy League. He then went on to make an impact in the club's run to the FA Youth Cup final, scoring a

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

and setting up teammate Ravel Morrison on the way to a 3–2 comeback against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

in the quarter-final. Cole made his only senior appearance for Manchester United in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

on 20 September 2011, coming as a substitute for

Federico Macheda Federico Macheda (; born 22 August 1991) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Süper Lig club Ankaragücü. Born in Rome, Macheda began his career with local club Lazio, but joined Manchester United when he turned 1 ...

in the 77th minute of a 3–0 third round victory over rivals

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

at Elland Road. On 14 May 2013, Cole scored a

, including two penalties, against rivals Liverpool in the semi-final of the Under-21 Premier League as Manchester United won 3–0. Six days later, he scored two goals against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

in the Under-21 final at Old Trafford, as Manchester United won 3–2.

Fulham

On 31 January 2014, Cole joined fellow

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

team Fulham for an undisclosed fee, along with Manchester United teammate Ryan Tunnicliffe, joining up with former Manchester United coach

René Meulensteen Reinhard Jozef Petrus Meulensteen (born 25 March 1964) is a Dutch former footballer and coach who is currently assistant coach of the Australia national soccer team. He spent the early parts of his career working in the Netherlands before taking ...

. He made his debut on 9 February in a 2–2 draw against his former club at Old Trafford, coming on as an 80th-minute substitute for William Kvist. Following Meulensteen's sacking as Fulham manager, Cole and Tunnicliffe were deemed surplus to requirements by Meulensteen's replacement,

Felix Magath Wolfgang Felix Magath (; born 26 July 1953) is a German football manager and former player. The most notable spell of his playing career was with Hamburger SV, with whom he won three Bundesliga titles, the 1977 European Cup Winners' Cup Final a ...

. On 25 February 2014, Cole joined

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

side

on loan until the end of the 2013–14 season. He made three appearances for the Dons, while his parent club ended the season with relegation to the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. Cole did not play a single competitive game in 2014–15. On 1 September 2015, the last day of the 2015 summer transfer window, Cole returned to League One, with promoted club

, on loan until January 2016. He made his debut four days later, replacing the injured James Wesolowski in the 16th minute of an eventual 2–1 win at Barnsley for the team's first league win of the season. He then provided two assists for Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro in a 2–0 victory over Blackpool on 26 September for Shrewsbury's first home win of the season. His first senior goal came in a 3–1 defeat to

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

at the

New Meadow New Meadow, also known as Montgomery Waters Meadow for sponsorship purposes, is a stadium situated on the southern outskirts of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, between the districts of Meole Brace and Sutton Farm, and close to the A5. It serves the ho ...

on 1 December. He later extended his loan deal until the end of the season, making a total of 34 appearances in all competitions, scoring 3 goals. On 31 August 2016, Cole signed for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

club

on a loan deal until January 2017. He scored his first goal for the club in a 1–1 draw with

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championship, having been relegated from the 2020–21 Scotti ...

on 10 December 2016. In January 2017, the loan deal was extended until the end of the 2016–17 season.

Tranmere Rovers

On 27 October 2017, Cole signed for

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

club

on a deal until January 2018. Cole made his Tranmere debut the very next day, coming on as a substitute and scoring in a 4–2 home win against

Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...

. Four weeks later, Cole doubled his Rovers goals tally, scoring the opening goal in a 2–2 draw away to

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was wound-up after a High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially known as Macclesfield F.C., the club was formed in 1874 ...

on 21 November. Cole extended his contract with Tranmere at the end of the 2017–18 season, but after just over a year with the club, he was released in January 2019.

F.C. United of Manchester

Cole joined

FC United of Manchester Football Club United of Manchester is a semi-professional football club based in Moston, Manchester, England, that competes in the , the seventh tier of the English football league system, and plays home matches at Broadhurst Park. Founded ...

in February 2020.

Flint Town United

In June 2022 he joined

Cymru Premier The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. Prior to 200 ...

side Flint Town United. He made his league debut for the club on 13 August.

Warrington Town

In February 2023, Cole signed for Northern Premier League Premier Division club Warrington Town.

International career

Cole was called up for the England under-19 friendly against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in August 2011 and went on to make his debut as a substitute in the 0–0 draw on 1 September 2011. On 28 May 2013, he was named in manager

Peter Taylor Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politi ...

's 21-man squad for the

2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the nineteenth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. It ran from 21 June to 13 July 2013. At the FIFA Executive Meeting in Zürich on 3 March 2011, ...

. He made his debut on 16 June, in a 3–0 win in a warm-up game against

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Larnell Living people 1993 births English men's footballers England men's youth international footballers Men's association football midfielders Manchester United F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players F.C. United of Manchester players Radcliffe F.C. players Flint Town United F.C. players Warrington Town F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Scottish Professional Football League players Cymru Premier players Northern Premier League players Footballers from Manchester