Carlton Cole (born November 12, 1983 in Surrey, England) is a football player who currently plays for Aston Villa F.C. on loan from Chelsea F.C..

He made his Chelsea debut on April 6, 2002 as a substitute for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink in a 3-0 victory against Everton F.C.. He went on loan to Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. for five weeks through November 2002 and January 2003, playing five games before returning to Chelsea to conclude the season. He was again loaned to Charlton Athletic F.C. where he made a significant goal-scoring impact. However, it has been at Aston Villa where he has made the most appearances thus far, accruing around half his league starts there.

After being hounded earlier in his career for making false allegations, Cole has developed into a consistant goal-scorer for every team he has played for - including the England Under-21s, for whom, a couple of days after his goal-scoring debut for Aston Villa, he scored two goals against Ukraine.