As the Champions League draw was held last night, Joe Cole, the former Chelsea and West Ham Legend found himself in a perilous position, something he managed to evade without humiliating himself.
The former England Internation was on stage with the two-time Champions League winners with Barcelona, Eric Abidal, on the occasion of the Champions League draw.
As Joe Cole was given the duty to take the balls out from the spot, he was executing his duty fairly well, until the Belgradian club, Crvena Zvezda’s name appeared. Instead of falling into the slippery slope of hell, he decided to call it Red Star Belgrade, as it is called in anglophone media.
The three times Premier League winner was seen laughing just after he called out the name, hinting to us all the difficulty he might have faced if he had tried to pronounce the name in its indigenous form.
Not only Twitterati, but Pedro Pinto, the presenter also joked by saying that, “playing it safe”, as Cole decided to go with Red Star Belgrade instead of Crvena Zvezda.
Fans were also concerned about another thing apart from Joe Cole’s choice of words, and that is Joe Cole himself. The former Chelsea player being the honorable guest at a UEFA event was a weird sight as fans believe there were other English Legends who could have been called.
Joe Cole never won the Champions League, although he reached the finals with Chelsea back in 2008 when they faced and lost against Manchester United, so his presence in the first place was a little difficult to imbibe.
As the groups unfolded, an exciting season of Champions League is on the road. The highlight of the draw was how group F unfolded, which happens to be the group of death. PSG, Dortmund, Milan, and Newcastle are in one group, and only two will move forward, the stakes are high.
Manchester United will face Bayern Munich in group A, as Harry Kane will return to England for the first time since his move to the Bavarian Capital.
On the other hand, some fans are saying that the draw is rigged as Manchester City will face RB Leipzig for the third time. Luckily for Barcelona, they may not play Europa League again as they have a fairly easy group, with Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, and Antwerp FC, unlike Bayern and Inter.
Arsenal is also back at the biggest stage after a long hiatus and will look to proceed to the next round, as they have a comfortable group with Sevilla, PSV, and Lens.
