England currently lie second in World Cup Qualifying Group 6, a point behind Poland with a game in hand, and Cole knows qualification is certainly no forgone conclusion.

But he is already dreaming of a heavyweight bout with Brazil in the World Cup Final, and the chance to get one over on the ‘samba boys’ after they knocked England out of the World Cup in 2002.

"We’d love to play them in the final and beat them," he said, "that would be the perfect end to the World Cup.

"They’re a great team though - they’ve proved in the Confederations Cup how good they are with their young players, so it would be tough.

"When you watch them play you are aware they’re playing amazing football but on the day hopefully you can get that little bit of luck.

"If everyone is behind us then hopefully we can do it - we’re certainly good enough to win it."

Before next summer’s festival of football in Germany there is the small matter of qualification, and Cole is confident there will be no complacency in the Three Lions camp.

"For us going into a game you can never take it easy, as we proved when we drew against Macedonia at home in 2002," he said.

"It’s going to be tough but we’re confident that if we play the way we can play that we’ll get good results and go through.

"We’re happy with the position we’re in at the moment. We think we can qualify, we’ve got the players to do so and if everyone stays fit we’ll definitely be going to the World Cup."

And if that should occur are England really in a position to end 40 years of hurt by lifting the World Cup and writing themselves into the history books?

"We’re definitely up there," he says. "When you talk to the foreign players at Arsenal they say we’re good enough to win it, but of course when you’re at the big tournaments sometimes you don’t get the luck which I think a lot of teams need to win things.

"Of course you look at teams like Brazil and Argentina and think it’s going to be hard to beat them but on the day you never know.

"We’re a strong unit at the moment – it’s a good spirit. We’ve got young players with experience and the older players like Sol, Gary Neville and Beckham always make you improve and give you the confidence you can go and win.

"For me the World Cup is still a dream. I think if you asked any kid out there ‘would you like to play in a World Cup?’ they would give anything to do it, and it’s the same for me.

"It’s always nice to go to these big tournaments and try and prove yourself against the best players in the world."