Carlton Cole joins Celtic: Former Chelsea and West Ham striker wants to be 'a hero' for Scottish champions

Cole had been training with the club for the last few weeks

(Twitter/Celtic FC)

Carlton Cole aims to be a Celtic hero after joining the Scottish champions until the end of next season.

The former West Ham and England striker has signed a deal after training with Celtic for several weeks, after ending a nine-year association with the Hammers in the summer.

The 32-year-old had options abroad and in England, but he feels he can form a strong bond with the Celtic fans.

Cole, who netted three goals in 26 appearances last season, said: "Being at Celtic is not about the money, it's about wearing the shirt with pride.

"It was the same at West Ham, if you put on that shirt and you wear it with pride, the fans would take to you and you would get a good rapport with the fans.

"That's what I'm here for, I can see the same sort of thing at Celtic.

"As soon as I came here I've had everyone explain to me, even the taxi man, how much the club means to them. That's what I wanted to hear and I want to hopefully be a hero to them."

Cole, who began his career with Chelsea, where he was loaned to Wolves, Charlton and Aston Villa, added: "Celtic are in a great position to win trophies and I want to add that to my career.

"It's a family club as well, everyone connected to the club really wants the club to do well. If you've got a family club like this that wins things, we can all win together and be happy together.

"Every one of the staff have been brilliant towards me and I just felt so welcome so that's why I wanted to get this deal done and over the line so I can start working.

"The players have taken to me well and I've taken to them and there's a great atmosphere in the changing room and I just wanted to be part of that."

Former Celtic boss Neil Lennon was reported to have made an attempt to sign Cole but the striker said: "I didn't really talk about Bolton but I'm here to talk about Celtic really.

"Obviously you get clubs that are interested in players like me, I'm a free agent, but this was a no-brainer.

"I didn't need advice, you already know from down south how big Celtic are as a club all around the world.

"If you go to New York you see Celtic fans, if you go to Australia you see Celtic fans. You know how big the club is so I didn't have to take any advice."

Cole, who scored 85 goals in 384 club games and also won seven England caps, comes in as competition for Leigh Griffiths and Nadir Ciftci.

With Anthony Stokes completely out of favour, Celtic had been short of numbers up front since Stefan Scepovic returned to Spain just before the transfer deadline to sign for Getafe on a season-long loan.

And Cole believes he will give manager Ronny Deila a different option.

"I'm a different player to Leigh, he's a nice, nippy player and scores goals left, right and centre and I see myself as a bit more of a powerhouse, occupying two or three defenders, getting on the end of crosses," he said.

"I see myself as trying to break open defences when they are really tight and locked.

"I'm pushing towards fitness so I can play as soon as possible."

PA