A generational football talent, a celebrated actor and now a chanteur with serious chops – the Frenchman is a polymath par excellence. He discusses politics, mortality and Pep Guardiola
ake Nick Cave, add a splash of Leonard Cohen, sprinkle with Serge Gainsbourg and you might have something approximating Eric Cantona’s first single. Yes, you read that right: The Friends We Lost is seriously good. The footballer turned actor turned chanteur whisper-croons his way through a gorgeous meditation on life with a handful of gnomic Cantona-isms thrown in for good measure . The single is just the start. Next up is a tour, a live album and a studio album.
We meet in London at the European headquarters of Universal, the record company releasing his music. Cantona is a tall, imposing figure. With a mottled beard, caterpillar eyebrows and spectacles, he could pass for a don – university or mafia. We have met previously, in 2009, when he was promoting Looking for Eric. Despite his well-earned bad-boy reputation, what struck me then was his warmth and a surprising shyness.Fourteen years on, he has lost none of that warmth.
Cantona is not finished listing his music heroes: “The last ones who really inspired me were Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen and Daniel Johnston.” I tell him I can hear the influences of Cave and Cohen in his music. He looks chuffed. “Thank you.” How would he describe his singing style? “I hate it when people try to be like somebody. We all have our own personalities and I don’t want to be like somebody else. I tried to find my voice. So I never took lessons. And I found it.
He has also shot the video for the single, which stars his 13-year-old son, Emir, the elder of his two children with his second wife, the actor Rachida Brakni . “I did the lyrics, I wrote the music, I wrote the video and directed the video. I can do everything but be humble.” Is he serious about his lack of humility? He bursts out laughing. “It’s all about derision.?” He questions his use of the word. Laughing at yourself? “Yeah. Laughing at myself – or life. It’s a circus, just a big circus.
Does he worry about football’s soul when top clubs become the playthings of the obscenely wealthy? “I think I’d support a team from the third or fourth division or non-league. Like Ken Loach with Bath City. With the soul.”
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