Joe Cole admitted yesterday that Chelsea must win the Champions League before they can be considered a leading force in world football.

Their aim is to be rated as the world’s leading club by 2014, an impressive-sounding aspiration that is difficult to quantify.

It is hard to see how Chelsea’s fanbase and global appeal can match that of rivals such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona, given their illustrious histories, but Cole believes that they can make their mark through sheer weight of silverware. Chelsea have made a significant breakthrough by establishing themselves as the most consistent side in Europe in recent years, reaching the Champions League semi-finals in five of the past six seasons, but the trophy has eluded them.

Peter Kenyon, the outgoing chief executive, set the club a target two years ago of winning two European titles over a ten-year period, an ambitious message that appears to have filtered down to the dressing room.

“The Premier League is very important, but, for this club, the Champions League is a massive target for us,” Cole said. “We haven’t won it yet. We’ve come very close in the last five years and maybe should have won it on one or two occasions. We’ve come very close. That remains the aim, to win it.

“Chelsea, as a football club, needs to win the Champions League. We’ve got everything else: the players, the manager, the set-up. Everything’s fantastic, but everything’s geared towards winning and the Champions League is the most important trophy.

“If Chelsea are styling themselves as a club with genuine claims to be the biggest club we can be, as big as Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, then you have to win trophies. And you have to win major trophies. The Champions League will help us as a worldwide club to show we’re here to do business.”

Cole will start his first Champions League match for 11 months against Atlético, after recovering from a cruciate knee-ligament injury, and is eager to make up for lost time. The 27-year-old was forced to watch last season’s semi-final defeat by Barcelona from the stands as he completed his rehabilitation, but has recovered to play an important role as Chelsea have been in the goals in recent weeks.

“Barcelona was the most difficult game for me to watch,” Cole said. “I was convinced it was going to be our year. It didn’t happen for us and it hurt like it hurt every other Chelsea fan. But that’s in the past, that’s been and gone. Now it’s a new season and a fresh chance to go on and win it.

“We’ve got a lot of world-class players in our dressing room and they’re very confident at the moment. It all starts from working hard, fighting for each other and going for the win. We feel we can score every time we have the ball.”