Joe Cole might have been used to netting goals, but he admitted that he used to have a much seedier career helping his dad sell items off the back of vans, much like Del Boy
18:38, 13 Dec 2025
Joe Cole
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Football icon Joe Cole had a rather seedy job as a kid(Image: Getty Images)
Footballer Joe Cole has revealed he was a real life Del Boy — helping his dad flog hooky gear including Ralph Lauren shirts from the back of a van. The former West Ham United and Chelsea star admitted he used to be a lookout to warn if cops were nearby so they could scarper.
Joe, 44, said: “There was a bit of illegal fly-pitching around Waterloo Station and the South Bank. As a kid I would go with him sometimes.
"He and a couple of others would back the van into the spot they had selected and sell whatever they had from the open doors. Two lookouts to watch for the police and Dad would sell as quickly as he could.
Joe Cole
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Joe Cole revealed how he was drawn into his dad's dodgy dealings, serving as a lookout(Image: DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
“I learnt to whistle, shrill and loud, if I saw the vigilant officers of the Met," he added. “As soon as he heard it, the gear was shoved back in, his mates slammed the doors shut and we were away in less than a minute.
“Whether you had been selling for a couple of hours or 20 minutes, what you had got by then were your takings for the day. You did not push your luck by going back the same day.”
The operation mirrored the antics of Del Boy and Rodney Trotter in hit sitcom Only Fools and Horses. In his new book Luxury Player, the former England midfielder told how his late dad George had spent time in jail when he was growing up.
Joe explained: “When Dad came out of prison after that first spell, he worked hard. Those felt like golden years for us as a family.
Only Fools and Horses
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The illegal flogging mirrored that of Del Boy Trotter's antics on Only Fools and Horses(Image: BBC)
“He worked the market stalls and anyone who has ever run one knows what hard graft that can be," he recalled. "He started with one outside the butcher’s on Queen’s Crescent in Kentish Town.
“My dad George was a ducker and a diver; he had an instinct for earning money. He used the c-word a lot — as if he had accumulated a surplus of them, like the Ralph Lauren polo shirts that mysteriously appeared in big teetering piles of cardboard boxes at Donnington Court and stayed there until Mum insisted he get rid of them.
“The Ralph Lauren shirts were another venture. For a while, it seemed that everyone on the estate was wearing Ralph Lauren.
“The postman, the milkman, the man who owned the corner shop, even the teachers in the schools. They were clearly being offered some very competitive deals by their pupils.
Joe Cole
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He revealed he was able to tell the difference between real luxury products and fakes thanks to his dad(Image: UEFA via Getty Images)
“We learnt to distinguish between the fakes — which were very good — and the bona fide Ralphs. It all came down to studying the tiny emblem of the polo player astride his horse and the position of his hammer, or the horse’s tail.
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“Legend has it that a consignment of Ralph Lauren clothes that went missing in Camden Town once featured on the BBC’s Crimewatch show. Although no one has ever been able to confirm that.
“Either way, Crimewatch was a very popular programme on our estate. For many in the area it represented their best chance of seeing someone they knew on television.”
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