Galaxy news conference is a day at the beach for Ashley Cole

The Galaxy held a news conference for recent acquisition Ashley Cole on Friday, and the former English national team defender didn’t have to wait any longer than the first question to be asked about a disparaging comment he once made about the league he is now joining.

When Cole left the English Premier League for the Italian club Roma in 2014, he was asked why he picked that team rather than one in Major League Soccer, which was then fighting a reputation as a retirement home for aging players such as Cole.

“I had offers from the U.S.A., but I’m not ready to relax on a beach yet,” he told reporters at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.

He told another group of reporters a slightly different story Friday.

“I knew I was going to get this question,” he said with a pained smile. “Again, I’m not going to come in and try to defend myself. It was said, but it for sure was taken out of context.

“I was talking to the reporter before and he kind of said it me. ‘Oh we’re glad to have you here at Roma. We didn’t expect you to be here. We thought you’d go relax on the beach.’ So in the interview I said it. Yes, it’s come out of my mouth.

“And of course you have to understand I was at a new team. I have to kind of tell the fans at Roma that I was there to fight, there to win things and play in the Champions League. It was said. But for sure it was taken out of context.”

Cole played more games on the back line than any defender in the history of the English national team. And as a club player he won three Premier League titles and a Champions League crown with Arsenal and Chelsea. His move to Roma in the summer of 2014 didn’t work out as well, however, and Cole has gone 11 months without appearing in a Serie A game.

At 35, he’s also slowed considerably. The Galaxy isn’t risking much by acquiring him, though, since the team signed him for just $300,000.

For Cole, who will play left back, the money isn’t as important as the chance to prove himself and change people’s attitudes about him.

“I’m happy to be here,” he said. “I’m going to try to work as hard as I can, change a few views on me being here .... I don’t come here to sit on the beach, to rest,” he pledged.

But erasing the past may take longer than he had hoped. When Cole was asked later in the news conference what drew him to the Galaxy, new teammate Jelle Van Damme covered his mouth and whispered playfully, “The beach.”