Eric Cantona says music career is “closest thing” that comes to his time on football pitch

Eric Cantona has described his newly launched music career as being the “closest thing” that comes to his time on the football pitch.The retired Manchester United legend first teased a career in music earlier this year via a post on Instagram, which shared a preview of the music video for his lead single, ‘The Friends We Lost’. The clip showed him in a Shakespearean pose, holding a model of his own head and singing: “Watch yourself in the mirror – someone you hate, someone you love.”Now, he has described the new venture as the next best thing from being on the football pitch.“If you have a dream it should be a big dream.

I’ve done sport, cinema, but I think after sport the closest thing is singing live on stage,” he is quoted as saying by the Daily Star’s Wired column (via Music News). “I did the live shows first.

After people came they were like, ‘You should release one or two pieces’.“When I was young, all the albums I bought were live albums. There is an energy and imperfection, there are accidents that can be beautiful – hopefully not too many accidents.”The French athlete-turned-singer previously told the Irish Times that his music was inspired by artists including “Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen and Daniel Johnston”, as well as the classic rock icons he listened to when he was a child.Cantona will also be embarking on a select number of live shows later this month.

Set to kick off on October 26, the four UK shows will start with two back-to-back nights at the Stoller Hall in Manchester, and will include with two shows at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre (October 28 – 29). A show at Dublin’s Liberty Hall is also set for October 31, and you can find any remaining tickets to all dates here.Elsewhere in the interview, the singer