Yet his father George, a former fruit and veg. trader from Camden, is mystified as to where his eldest of three children got his talent from.

‘‘Really and truly I am not a football person myself,’’ said George Cole.

‘‘It was only various friends who pointed out Joe had a talent and should get proper coaching.

‘‘He had no coaching until he was 11. He’d watch football on the television, particularly the Italian and African players, then go outside and practice what they did.

‘‘From the age of two, a football was never far from him ﷓ he breathes the game.’’

Despite all the attention and plaudits he is attracting, Cole still has his feet firmly on the ground.

He is one of the quieter lads in the West Ham dressing room, very shy and polite when you meet him and he is clearly without any huge ego that accompanies many of his fellow professionals.

The young star was chased by the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham, but once he had seen the set-up at West Ham, there was only ever going to be one club in the running for his signature.

One man who played a major part in taking Cole to Upton Park was Jimmy Neighbour, who was youth development officer for the Hammers at the time.

‘‘Arsenal must be kicking themselves now because Joe came from Islington, he played for Islington schoolboys and he was an Arsenal supporter,’’ said Neighbour.

‘‘Football is a small world and people all over the country soon got to know about Joe, but we pursued him really hard.

‘‘It was all above board because although he was training with Arsenal at the time he hadn’t actually signed for them. So we were really proud when Joe decided he wanted to come to West Ham.’’

Neighbour, the former Tottenham, Norwich and West Ham favourite, will never forget how he first heard about the kid from north London who was making a big impression on the scouts on the Sunday morning soccer scene.

He recalled: ‘‘I was youth development officer at West Ham and I had a scout working for me called Dennis Coxall who saw Joe playing for a Sunday morning club called Chapel Market.

‘‘Joe was only 12 or 13 at the time, but he was playing in a team a couple of years above his age group. Dennis came to me and said he’d seen this kid who was outstanding. I’d heard it before, but this time the kid was special.

‘‘When Dennis went to see him there were loads of other scouts there and he was told he might as well forget it because Joe was training with Arsenal and was signing for them.

‘‘But to his credit Dennis wouldn’t accept this and he pursued him. He got to know Joe’s dad, George, and persuaded him to come to West Ham. As soon as I saw Joe I stepped in to help Dennis.

‘‘We made Joe feel very much at home and very happy. He didn’t want to go anywhere else after that. He did go and look at other clubs, but we made him feel so at home he wanted to sign for West Ham.’’

Neighbour, who is now on the coaching staff at Tottenham, remembers how Cole made a big impression on everyone at West Ham as soon as they saw him.

‘‘When everyone at West Ham saw him they raved about him,’’ said Neighbour.

‘‘Billy Bonds was manager at the time with Harry Redknapp as his assistant and they couldn’t believe what they were looking at.

‘‘Joe wanted the ball all the time. Some of the skills he did were amazing, he had such quick feet and the ability to go past people.

‘‘He still had to learn the game and the only criticism was that he wanted to take on too many people at once, but with his amazing skills he would beat them all.

‘‘Joe had the lot at 13. He was the best youngster I had ever seen, no-one could touch him.

‘‘He used to flick the ball over his head past two defenders and go between them ﷓ that is something you just don’t see a 13-year-old do. He got away with it because he did it well, it wasn’t luck.

‘‘He was so quick he was off the mark before people could get near him. I couldn’t see a weak link.’’

Cole has certainly made his mark on West Ham and now his aim is simple: to make his mark on the World Cup finals by helping Sven-Goran Eriksson’s England team in Japan and South Korea.