Football news - Ashley Cole announces retirement, targets coaching career

Cole, who won 107 England caps and enjoyed a spell in Serie A with Roma and played MLS football with LA Galaxy, is now targeting a career in coaching.

The 38-year-old came through the ranks at Arsenal and won his place in the first team in 2000-01. He won two Premier League titles with his boyhood club and was a key member of the team that went through the 2003-04 season unbeaten.

In the summer of 2006, Cole made a controversial move across London to Chelsea. At Stamford Bridge he won a further Premier League title in 2009-10 and the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League among eight major honours.

With seven winners' medals, Cole is the most successful player in FA Cup history, a record matched only by his former manager Arsene Wenger.

"After hard thinking and consideration, it was obviously time to hang my boots up," Cole said on Sky Sports.

"I can look forward to my next chapter which will hopefully be coaching. I'm doing a course at the moment."

After leaving Chelsea, he moved to Roma before getting a transfer to the USA to play for Galaxy. His final club was Derby County, where he played under his former Chelsea and England team-mate Frank Lampard and reached the Championship play-off final.