United's Andy Cole is coming to town

JAKARTA (JP): Manchester United striker Andy Cole will be at the Senayan stadium on July 5 for a one-hour soccer clinic with young Indonesian players.

Ruby Sjabana, sales and marketing manager of Reebok's Indonesian distributor, PT RSH Marketing, said yesterday the 26- year-old striker was promoting Reebok International Ltd.'s products in Asia.

Before coming to Indonesia, Cole will visit Japan and Singapore. He will go to Malaysia on July 6 for the final leg of his promotional tour.

After the soccer clinic, scheduled from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Cole will go to the Reebok counter in Plaza Senayan to meet his fans at 6 p.m.

Born in Nottingham on Oct. 15, 1971, Cole made his national football debut at 19. His first game was for Arsenal against Sheffield United in December 1990. But he was never included in Arsenal's first line-up. Arsenal defender Tony Adams later remarked, "At that time we had a lot of (better) strikers."

Cole moved to Fulham before being transferred to Bristol City as a substitute player. His annual wage was 500,000 pounds sterling (US$760,000).

For Bristol, Cole proved his worth by scoring 25 goals in 49 matches. He was then transferred to Newcastle United for 1.75 million pounds sterling ($2,660,000). For Newcastle, he scored 68 goals in 83 matches.

He arrived at Old Trafford two years ago. His transfer cost a record $11 million.

Blackburn defender Colin Hendry once said Cole's moves were very difficult to anticipate: "He is very quick and versatile when situated near his enemy's goal post."

Despite his impressive performance, Cole was not selected for the English national team for the European Championships. Team manager Terry Venables preferred Alan Shearer from the Blackburn Rovers. (arf)