Tampa Bay Rowdies sign Joe Cole

The Tampa Bay Rowdies of the NASL announced Wednesday the club has acquired former England international Joe Cole on a two-year deal, with a third-year option for the 2018 season.

"Joe is a fantastic player, a player I know well from my time in England," Rowdies head coach Stuart Campbell said in a statement. "His experience not just on the field, but off it, is invaluable for us.

"One of the biggest things I took from my conversations with Joe was his love of the game and how badly he wants to win matches. The fire is burning inside him to win games and achieve great things with the Rowdies."

Cole, 34, joins the Rowdies from Coventry City, where his contract is up at the end of the season.

"I've always envisaged playing in the United States at some point in my life and this opportunity came up," Cole said in a statement. "My family and I came out to visit a few months ago and everyone was lovely, they really made us feel welcomed. I'm really excited to get started and I want to be part of a successful team.

"My desire to win football matches is still there, I'm not coming for an extended holiday. I want to win football matches and of course experience a new lifestyle with my family, but the priority for me is success on the pitch."

The former Chelsea, Liverpool and West Ham midfielder called his move "a very exciting time" for his career and will link up with fellow former Premier League regular Neill Collins, who previously plied his trade as a central defender for Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Although Cole's move isn't at the top of the U.S. soccer pyramid in Major League Soccer, he still joins a second-tier team with ambitions of replicating its successes in the 1970s and '80s, following in the footsteps of the likes of Clyde Best and Rodney Marsh.

Campbell, his head coach, has a respectable career as a midfielder with Grimsby Town and Bristol Rovers to draw on as well.