Cole was as a youngster rejected by Arsenal, since that he has continued to prove their wrong with every goal he scores. Cole was also the "PFA Young Player of the Year" in 1994.

Cole made his debut for Arsenal against Sheffield United in December 1990, aged 19. Unfortunately he couldn�t get a first team place for Arsenal, so after a loan period in Fulham he took the chance to abandon the top club Arsenal for the Division 1 club Bristol City, which paid the huge transfer of �500 000 for a reserve team player. But Cole repaid his new club with 25 goals in 49 matches and after that he was on his way to Newcastle where his partnership with Peter Beardsly will go to the history as one of best striker pair ever in England.

Cole has a goal scoring record in Newcastle with 68 goals in 83 matches that speaks for itself. After that record he is feared by defenders in every Premiership club.

Blackburn�s Colin Hendry says: "Andy is one of the most difficult strikers to play against. He is quick and instinctive around the box."

Arsenal�s Tony Adams adds: "He never got a chance at Arsenal because we were well off for strikers, but Andy gave us strength to show he had something about him. The biggest compliment I can pay him is to say he is in a similar mould to Gary Lineker."

After his marvellous start in Newcastle Cole got to make the debut for England. He almost got on the score sheet in his first game against Uruguay, only the crossbar pre-vented him completing a dream start.

When Cole arrived at Old Trafford in January 1995, for a �6 million transfer fee, the nation was stunned. Even the United fans were surprised, but happy of course. Cole�s former club Newcastle were shocked by the move, and it ruined any chances they had of chal-lenging for the title in 1994-95 or even qualifying for Europe.

Cole started with 14 goals in his first 28 games for United, including five in the 9-0 rout of Ipswich in February 1995. Apart from that success he found it hard to take a first team place at United.

In the late year of 1995 Cole broke his leg in a reserve team game. He came back in the beginning of 1997, but he found it hard to advance any further than the bench, because of the successive cooperation between the strikers Eric Cantona and the Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer that led United to the Premiership title.

When Eric Cantona decided to quit playing football after the 1996-97 sea-son Cole took the chance to play in the first team. And this season was a tremen-dous success for Cole when he has been the top goalscorer of United. He also finished in the 6th place in the scoring table of the league, only 2 goals from the top.

Arsenal striker Ian Wright is a fan of Cole. He said once: "He�s up there with likes of Law and Best in my opinion", Wright continued: "He can do for United what they did for the club in terms of goals. He certainly has what it takes", and Wright finished: "Andy is a goalscorer. If you give him chances he will score. And in the United team he will get those chances."