Joe Cole has quit his role at Chelsea to spend a year building up his coaching knowledge ahead of a move into management.
Cole, 38, linked up with his former club a year ago to start work as a technical coach at the club’s highly-rated academy.
But he decided to leave the comfortable surrounds of Stamford Bridge in order to visit clubs around the world to gain an insight in the coaching techniques of other managers in order to build up his own knowledge.
The former England star ultimately hopes to move into management once he has completed his badges and learnt his trade – including by helping the FA working the country’s best young talents.
Cole said: “Just before lockdown I stepped down from my role at Chelsea. I had a great time there and learned so much
“It was really important in my development but I was planning on carrying my work with BT and I was planning on doing study visits around the world with different managers, and study visits within the FA.
“That all got put to bed because of Covid but I’ll pick that up when I can and it’s back to normal. I loved it there.
“I’m sure one day I’ll return in some capacity but at the moment, for my development as a coach, I felt going round and going to look and listen and keep my ears and eyes open was the best thing for me.”
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He added: “I don’t want to say any clubs because I don’t know if certain managers will be in charge when I ask to go back again. I don’t want to really talk about that.
“But I was working with the FA and I was looking to get with the younger age groups within the FA and see how that works.
“But I don’t want to mention them because you know how things change in football.”