Eric Cantona, the bigger-than-life former French football star, appeared in Cannes to promote the Ken Loach-directed movie, Looking for Eric, in which he plays himself — and with the same panache as he scored his many goals for Manchester United in the 1990s.

There is a line in Paul Laverty’s skilfully written screenplay which sums up the man who became as much of a legend on the field as he did off it: “I’m not a man — I’m Cantona.”

Now that Manchester United is looking to expand into India, having tied up a reported £10 million sponsorship deal with Bharti Airtel, Indian football fans may yet get a sight of the sportsman-turned-film star very soon.

In any case, if Manchester United keeps its promise, downloads from the film could well be seen by Airtel mobile phone customers in India.

It was apparently Cantona who approached Loach, and the deal was put together through the good offices of Tessa Ross, the head of drama and film at Film4 who was the first to spot the potential in Vikas Swarup’s Q&A. Though artistically not quite as good a film as Slumdog Millionaire, Cantona’s immense presence in the film and the subject matter should ensure Looking for Eric proves to be a commercial success across the world. Making good films about any sport, especially football, is notoriously difficult but Gurinder Chadha did it with Bend It Like Beckham and now Loach has almost certainly pulled it off with Looking for Eric.

After Cantona got his requested meeting with Loach and Laverty, the three set about writing a story which could weave the French footballer into a tale without making it seem too contrived.

It is best to imagine it like this: think of say, a postman in Calcutta whose personal life is in shambles and whose two sons, who live with him, have no respect for their father. Years ago the father walked out on his wife just as she was about to give birth to their first baby. But the postman has one obsession: Sourav Ganguly. He follows the cricketer everywhere and knows more about each run Sourav has made, where he made it and how the stroke was played than Sourav himself. The postman starts having imaginary conversations with Sourav whom only he can see. Slowly, from a position of hopelessness, the man is able to put his life together — especially after the Prince of Calcutta says: “I’m not a man — I’m Sourav.”

Switch Eric Cantona for Sourav Ganguly — and we have the plot of Looking for Eric. The soccer fan obsessed with Cantona is postman Eric Bishop (“little Eric”, Loach calls him), portrayed utterly realistically by actor Steve Evets.

The world premiere at the Grand Lumiere was punctuated by much laughter and generous applause at the end. There is one scene in which a group of United fans, who take on a violent gang, don Cantona masks. This is not to spoil the movie but when victory is achieved, a man appears among the fans, lifts his mask and reveals himself to be Cantona himself. Of course, all this occurs only in the imagination of “Little Eric”.

After Cantona on screen (Loach uses plenty of footage of the Frenchman scoring his magical goals for Manchester United), we had Cantona in person, introduced at a press conference as “the bearded fellow”.

I’m not a man... I’m Cantona: Eric Cantona (right) with actor Steve Evets who plays a postman who is an Eric Cantona fan in Looking for Eric

This was not the Cantona of old, the temperamental player who was forever in trouble for punching fellow footballers and getting suspended, but a more confident and mature man who turned 43 on Sunday. Perhaps the man who turned Cantona round by offering him the bit part of Monsier de Foix in Elizabeth in 1998 was none other than Shekhar Kapur.

For Cantona to play Cantona had not been easy, he agreed. “In life, one is spontaneous. In a screenplay you have to play being natural and spontaneous. There is a degree of tension.”

He compared Ken Loach with his former manager Alex Ferguson. “The way they go about getting 100 per cent from their actors or players is very similar. They are very humble people who get you to give every bit of yourself.”

One day, said Cantona, he would like to be in a movie without a script so that shooting the film would be more “real”, as though he was living life. The man who is now hungering for a scriptless film is in danger of talking himself into a Dev Anand or Subhash Ghai starrer or indeed any Bollywood film.

Indian journalists pondered afterwards whether it would be possible to make a film to be called, ‘Looking for Sachin’.

One shook his head and spoke for all: “No, he is too nice. But Navjot Sidhu, yes, he killed a man.”

Name: Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona. Known to the passionate followers as The King, Eric also goes by the nickname of Eric the Red

Birthday: May 24, 1966

Born in: Paris, France

Played for: The French national team and Leeds United before being signed on by Manchester United in 1992. Debuted on December 6, 1992, in a match opposite Manchester City (H) League. He left ManU on May 19, 1997

Jersey number: 7

Position: Forward

Trivia:

• Faced an eight-month ban after assaulting a fan in 1994-1995
• Was known for his boom boom boots
• Scored 82 goals in 185 appearances for ManU in five years
•Took up the captaincy of the French National Beach Football team after his retirement in 1997
• Appeared in a cameo in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth