Joe Cole: 'Grassroots coaching is the heartbeat of football's future'

Joe Cole stood on a training pitch in Singapore last week, watching a group of grassroots coaches run through drills with a cluster of under-12s, and felt something shift. “This is where it starts,” he said, pausing between sessions at the Premier League’s NEXTGEN Coach programme. “Not at Wembley, not at Anfield. Right here, with these coaches, on pitches like this one.”^{T1 - Premier League}

The Premier League brought its NEXTGEN Coach programme to Singapore in a four-day development course for grassroots coaches from across the region, supported by Cole and fellow League legend Nemanja Vidic. The programme, delivered in partnership with the Football Association of Singapore and Care Corner, builds on a community coach development initiative that took place in 2025 and marks the League’s continued commitment to the country, where it opened its first international office in 2019.^{T1 - Premier League}

For Cole, the trip carried a personal weight that went beyond ambassadorial duty. The thirty-six-year-old former Chelsea and Liverpool midfielder retired in 2018 after seventeen professional seasons and has spent much of the time since working with the Premier League’s international development programmes, travelling to markets in Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East. Singapore, he said, felt different. “You see the hunger here. The coaches want to learn, the kids want to play, and the infrastructure is growing fast. But what struck me most was how much a single well-trained coach can change a child’s relationship with football. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s what I saw.”^{T1 - Premier League}

The NEXTGEN Coach programme focuses on equipping grassroots coaches with age-appropriate session design, inclusive practice methods and an understanding of long-term player development rather than short-term results. Cole and Vidic led practical demonstrations across the four days, working directly with coaches who deliver sessions in schools, community centres and local clubs across Singapore.

Cole was blunt about what he considers the single biggest gap in football’s global pipeline. “We spend billions on transfers, on stadiums, on broadcast deals. And all of that matters. But if you don’t invest in the coach who’s standing in front of a group of six-year-olds on a Saturday morning, none of the rest works. Grassroots coaching is the heartbeat of football’s future. Full stop.”^{T1 - Premier League}

He pointed to his own development as evidence. Cole joined Chelsea’s academy at fourteen and has spoken publicly about the influence of youth coaches who shaped his technical foundation before he ever trained with the first team. “I was lucky. I had people at West Ham and then Chelsea who cared about how I received the ball, how I moved, how I thought. Not just whether we won the under-16s league. That stays with you.”^{T1 - Premier League}

The Premier League has committed to delivering NEXTGEN Coach in Singapore for at least two more years, a signal that the League views the market as a strategic priority rather than a one-off promotional visit. The programme aims to create a multiplier effect: each coach trained is expected to go on to deliver improved sessions for hundreds of young players across the local football ecosystem.^{T1 - Premier League}

Cole acknowledged that the Premier League’s commercial interests in Asia are well documented, from broadcast rights to pre-season tours, but he pushed back against the suggestion that programmes like NEXTGEN are simply extensions of that commercial machinery. “If it was just about selling shirts, we wouldn’t be here for four days running coaching courses. The Premier League has put real money, real people and real time into this. Nemanja and I aren’t here to wave at a camera. We’re on the grass, doing sessions, answering questions. That’s the job.”^{T1 - Premier League}

He also addressed the broader question of what English football owes to the global game. “The Premier League is the most-watched league in the world. That comes with responsibility. We can’t just take, take, take, the talent, the attention, the revenue, and not give something back. Developing coaches in Singapore, in India, in places where the game is growing, that’s giving something back. And honestly, it makes the product better too, because the talent pool gets deeper.”^{T1 - Premier League}

As the final session wrapped on Thursday afternoon, Cole lingered on the pitch, signing shirts and taking photographs with coaches who had travelled from across the region. He looked, for a moment, less like a Premier League ambassador and more like a coach himself. “I keep coming back to Asia because I believe in what’s happening here,” he said. “The next generation of footballers might not come from London or Liverpool. They might come from Singapore. And if they do, I want to know the coaches who found them were given every chance to do it right.”^{T1 - Premier League}