nited star trying to gather enough political backing to topple Nicolas Sarkozy.
After failing in a recent quixotic bid to destroy global banking, the man known to English fans as King Eric has written to French mayors to get the 500 signatures needed to stand in April’s election.
But Cantona appears to be applying one of his legendary footballing feints on the political field, using the unlikely presidential run to secure his real aim — help for the poorly housed, on behalf of one of his favoured charities.
In his letter to city mayors, revealed by the daily Liberation, the 45-year-old said he is “a citizen very much aware of our times,” which offer “limited opportunities” to the young and generate “violent” injustice.
He said he felt obliged to speak up “at a time when our country faces difficult choices” and that the current economic uncertainty gave him “a sense of my responsibility”.
Getting the 500 mayors to sign up to his message on housing and poverty “would allow me to send a simple but clear message: a message of truth and respect,” he said. Cantona, who has starred in adverts for such multinationals as L’Oreal and Nike, said he “chose the housing issue as it seems to me to be essential and concerns 10 million people”. “I had to act at a time when I was likely to be heard.”