Cole Perry Dasilva (born 11 May 1999) is a 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 lea ...

who plays as a full back for club

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt, near the border with Essex, just west of the ...

. Dasilva is a product of the Chelsea and

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

academies An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and began his professional career with

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

in 2018. Following his release in 2020 and spell with Leicester City U23, Dasilva transferred to Croatian club

HNK Šibenik Hrvatski nogometni klub Šibenik (), better known as HNK Šibenik or simply Šibenik (), is a Croatian professional association football, football sports club, club based in Šibenik. It competes in the Croatian Football League, SuperSport HNL, t ...

in 2021. He returned to England in 2022 and entered

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

. Born in England, Dasilva was capped by

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

at youth international level.

Club career

Chelsea

Initially a

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, Dasilva began his career at hometown club Luton Celtic, playing alongside his brothers Rio and

Jay Jays are a paraphyletic grouping of passerine birds within the family Corvidae. Although the term "jay" carries no taxonomic weight, most or all of the birds referred to as jays share a few similarities: they are small to medium-sized, usually ...

under his father's management. The brothers later entered the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

and were a part of the U11 team which beat a

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

youth team in the 2009 Final of the

five-a-side ''Five-A-Side'' is the debut album by the pop rock band Ace, released by Anchor Records in 1974. The album landed on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, reaching No. 11 in 1974. The single " How Long" reached No. 3 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in t ...

Aarau Masters. The brothers transferred to the Chelsea

academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

for a combined £1 million fee in January 2012. Dasilva began a scholarship in 2015 and progressed to sign a professional contract in June 2016, signing a one-year extension a year later. He had a successful youth career with the club, developing into a full back and winning the 2015–16

U18 Premier League The Professional Development League is a system of English youth football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Football Association via the Elite Player P ...

and the 2015–16 FA Youth Cup. He also made three appearances in Chelsea's

2017–18 UEFA Youth League The 2017–18 UEFA Youth League was the fifth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA. Barcelona won their second Youth League title following a win over Chelsea in the final. Red Bull Salz ...

-winning campaign and made two

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

appearances for the U23 team. Dasilva was released at the end of the 2017–18 season.

Brentford

On 7 August 2018, Dasilva joined the B team at

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 sys ...

club

on a two-year contract for an undisclosed fee, with the option of a further year. He made 41 appearances and scored seven goals during the 2018–19 season and was a part of the team which won the 2018–19

Middlesex Senior Cup The Middlesex Senior Cup is the most prestigious football cup competition in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Middlesex, England. The competition is run mainly for non-League clubs in the region, although league clubs have ...

. During the 2019–20

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

, Dasilva was included in the first team squad for its

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events ...

in Austria, but was largely frozen out of the B team during the regular season and was released when his contract expired in June 2020.

HNK Šibenik

After playing the final three months of the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season with Leicester City U23 as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

, Dasilva signed a contract with

Croatian First League The Hrvatska nogometna liga (; ), abbreviated as HNL and also known for sponsorship reasons as the SuperSport HNL, is a professional association football league in Croatia and the highest level of the Croatian football league system. Establish ...

club

on 27 June 2021. On 6 September, it was reported that Dasilva had finally been registered to play for the club and he made six appearances prior to the winter break, predominantly as a substitute. Dasilva failed to win a call into a matchday squad after the winter break and departed the club in March 2022.

Non-League football

2022–2023

On 8 March 2022, Dasilva signed an undisclosed-length contract with

National League South The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National League (English football), National Leagues and step ...

club Oxford City. During what remained of the 2021–22 season, Dasilva made 8 appearances and was a part of the

Oxfordshire Senior Cup The Oxfordshire Senior Cup is the senior county cup of the Oxfordshire Football Association. The competition was first contested in the 1884–85 season. Culham College won the inaugural tournament in 1985. Banbury Harriers were the first foo ...

-winning squad, but he did not feature in the Hoops' unsuccessful playoff campaign. Dasilva signed a contract with National League South club Hemel Hempstead Town in July 2022, but after making six appearances during the first seven weeks of the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season, he was released to join Southern League Premier Division Central club Royston Town in September 2022. Dasilva finished a mid-table

season with 39 appearances and one goal.

2023–2025

In August 2023, Dasilva dropped a division to transfer to Southern League First Division Central club Biggleswade Town. He made 25 appearances and scored two goals, prior to transferring across the division to

Bedford Town Bedford Town Football Club is a football club based in the Borough of Bedford, England. The club are currently members of the and play at the Eyrie in Cardington, a village on the outskirts of Bedford. They are full members of the Football As ...

on 5 March 2024. He made 6 appearances during the remainder of the 2023–24 season and was an unused substitute during the team's successful playoff campaign. In August 2024, Dasilva transferred to Southern League Premier Division Central club

. He made 48 appearances and scored five goals during the 2024–25 season.

International career

Dasilva was capped by Wales at U15, U16, U17, U19,

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA S ...

and U21 level and England at U16 level. He was a part of Wales' 2014–15

Victory Shield The Victory Shield is an annual football (soccer), football tournament competed for by the under-16 teams of Scotland national under-16 football team, Scotland, Republic of Ireland national under-16 football team, Republic of Ireland, Northern Irel ...

-winning team, but was not included in the squad for the deciding match versus

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. Dasilva made a single appearance during the U20 team's

2017 Toulon Tournament The 2017 Toulon Tournament (officially ) was the 45th edition of the Toulon Tournament. The tournament was named after Maurice Revello, who started the tournament in 1967 and died in 2016. It was held in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône from 29 ...

campaign.

Personal life

Dasilva is one of three footballing brothers – he is twin to Rio and younger brother to

. He is of Wales and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

ian descent.

Career statistics

Honours

Brentford B *

: 2018–19 Oxford City *

: 2021–22 Bedford Town * Southern League First Division Central play-offs:

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Wales U16 *

: 2014–15

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dasilva, Cole 1999 births Living people English men's footballers Welsh men's footballers Black British sportsmen Men's association football fullbacks Wales men's youth international footballers Wales men's under-21 international footballers Welsh people of Brazilian descent English people of Welsh descent English people of Brazilian descent England men's youth international footballers Luton Town F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Brentford F.C. players HNK Šibenik players Oxford City F.C. players Hemel Hempstead Town F.C. players Croatian Football League players National League (English football) players English expatriates in Croatia English expatriate men's footballers Welsh expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Croatia English expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Royston Town F.C. players Southern Football League players Biggleswade Town F.C. players Bedford Town F.C. players Bishop's Stortford F.C. players 21st-century English sportsmen