Former Manchester United player and legendary French striker Eric Cantona insisted he has no regrets in his career and that his infamous kung-fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan was great, as he compared his fledgling soft porn career to his playing days, according to The Express.
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The striker was known for his image as a Premier League hard man, so it is a stark contrast that the man is now conducting pornography, but he was quoted in The Express saying, “Love is sex and that is beautiful.”
Cantona also spoke about how, following his retirement, he lost his love for the game and felt disillusioned, “When it [my football career] was finished, I had lost my passion for the game, for my dream.
“In sport, I had to work very hard to come in, play the game and to be confident enough to enjoy the game. And as an actor, it’s exactly the same.
“We are in front of an audience, we are in front of everything. It’s a public job so we have to share it with the people.
“And it’s teamwork also. We have to work with other actors and we are directed by a director – in football, by a coach. For me, it’s very similar. It’s just another game. So I’m not bored.”
The former Leeds and Manchester United player managed an impressive 89 goals in 192 Red Devils appearances in a distinguished career where he occasionally blurred the lines between role model and infamous.
One such incident was a kung-fu kick on Crystal Palace fan Richard Shaw in 1995 following a red card at Selhurst Park, where the Frenchman clambered over the advertising hoardings to kick Shaw in the head. The incident saw Cantona convicted of assault, given 120 hours of community service and banned from football for nine months.
Amazingly, the Frenchman has no regrets, going as far as to say the kick was great.
“Kung-fu. It was great too. The good thing from that is, through me, everybody can realise, in your life, you can do good things and bad things,” said Cantona.
He continued, “I’ve done things I’m proud about and I’ve done some bad things that I don’t regret because it’s just my life. And if you’re happy, it’s good. If you’re not happy, I don’t care. Nobody will teach me how to behave myself.”