Reece George Cole (born 17 February 1998) is an English 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 le ...

who plays as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

. Cole is a graduate of the

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

and made one senior appearance for the club before his release in 2020. Following spells with

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

U23 and

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

, he dropped into

non-League football Non-League football describes 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 specifically used to de ...

in 2022. He returned to professional football with Exeter City in 2023.

Career

Brentford

Cole began his youth career in the Hayes & Yeading United

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 in the future if ...

, before joining

at age 14. He was a part of the U15 team which emerged victorious in the Junior category at the

2012 Milk Cup External linksOfficial site
2012 in association football, Milk Cup SuperCupNI 2011–12 in Northern Ireland association football, Milk ...

. Cole made 8 appearances for the U18 team before signing a scholarship deal at the end of the 2013–14 season. He made 32 appearances and scored seven goals during his two-year scholarship and increasingly became part of the Development Squad during the 2015–16 season, progressing sufficiently to sign a professional contract in February 2016. Cole was an unused substitute for a number of late-season first team matches in April 2016. Whilst a regular for the

B team B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...

, Cole received sporadic calls into the first team squad during the 2016–17 season, before making his senior debut as a late substitute for

Nico Yennaris Li Ke (; born Nicholas Harry Yennaris, 24 May 1993) is a British-born Chinese professional footballer formerly known as "Nicholas Harry Yennaris" who plays as a defensive midfielder for Beijing Guoan and the China national team. He began his ca ...

in a 3–2 victory over

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

on 7 March 2017. One month later, he signed a new three-year contract. Cole won further attention with long-range goals in

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 Se ...

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

wins over

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area i ...

and

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

in July 2017, before departing to join

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

club Newport County on loan until January 2018. He made his debut versus

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

9 days later and scored the first senior goal of his career with the only goal of the game. Cole made four further appearances and returned to Brentford in late September 2017, after suffering a knee injury. He returned to match play with the B team in December, but did not win any further calls into the first team squad before the end of the season. Cole spent much of the remainder of his contract away on loan with EFL,

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

and

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland Scotland (, ...

clubs

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

Maidenhead United Maidenhead United Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. They are currently members of and have played at York Road since 1871, making it the 'oldest senior football ground continuously ...

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional association football, football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was liquidation, wound-up after a High Court of Justice, High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially kno ...

and

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

. He gained significant game time at the latter two clubs, in particular scoring four goals in a five-match spell during November 2019, which saw him win the Partick Thistle Player of the Month award. Cole was released by Brentford in June 2020.

Queens Park Rangers

On 15 March 2021, Cole signed a short-term contract with the U23 team at Championship club

on a free transfer. He failed to win a call into the first team squad before the end of the season and was released when his contract expired.

Dunfermline Athletic

On 20 July 2021, Cole signed a one-year contract with Scottish Championship club

on a free transfer. After featuring predominantly as a substitute during the early months of the season, Cole undertook extra fitness training at the Joe Cardle Academy. On his 12th and final appearance of a 2021–22 season which culminated in relegation to the

Scottish League One The Scottish League One, known as cinch League One for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish League One was e ...

, Cole scored his only goal for the club in a 2–1 victory over

Ayr United Ayr United Football Club are a football club in Ayr, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. Formed in 1910 by the merger of Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr F.C., their nickname is ...

on 16 April 2022. Cole was released at the end of the season and remarked in July 2023 that he fell out of love with football during the latter stages his time with the club.

Non-League football

Seeking to play part-time football, Cole dropped into

and began 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 b ...

season with

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

South Central Division club Chertsey Town. He scored three goals in his first seven appearances for the club, before departing to rejoin Southern League Premier Division South club Hayes & Yeading United in October 2022. He made 27 appearances and scored five goals during a

season in which the club won the

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

. He became a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player 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 contract at present but who is a ...

at the end of the season.

Exeter City

Cole joined

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club

on trial during the 2023–24 pre-season. After weeks at

St James Park St James Park and variants may refer to: Municipalities * St James Park, New Zealand, a suburb of Hamilton, New Zealand Football stadiums * St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, England * St James Park (Exeter), Exeter, England * St James Park, g ...

, he signed a one-year contract, with the option of a further year, on 10 July 2023. The move reunited him with his former Partick Thistle manager

Gary Caldwell Gary Caldwell (born 12 April 1982) is a Scottish former professional footballer and coach who is the current manager of Exeter City. Caldwell played for Newcastle United, Darlington, Coventry City, Derby County, Hibernian, Celtic, Wigan Ath ...

. Following 17 appearances and one goal by mid-November 2023, Cole signed a new 18-month contract, with the option of a further year. Cole captained the team during three matches late in December and ended a mid-table 2023-24 season with 42 appearances and seven goals. In July 2024, Cole signed a one-year extension to his existing contract, with the option of a further year.

Personal life

Cole attended

Chalfonts Community College Chalfonts Community College is a co-educational Secondary education#England, Wales and Northern Ireland, secondary school in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire. It takes children from the age of 11 through to 18 and has approximately 1,481 pupils ...

. While out of professional football during the

, Cole worked as a teacher in the

London area London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...

Career statistics

Honours

Hayes & Yeading United *

: 2022–23 Individual *

Player of the Month: November 2019 *

Player of the Month: February 2024

References

External links

*
Reece Cole
at exetercityfc.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Reece 1998 births Living people English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Footballers from the London Borough of Hillingdon People from Hillingdon Brentford F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Maidenhead United F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Macclesfield Town F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Chertsey Town F.C. players Isthmian League players Hayes & Yeading United F.C. players Southern Football League players Exeter City F.C. players