Will Eric Cantona's Appeal Be Enough for the Seagulls to Follow His Trawler?

Former Manchester United and French footballer Eric Cantona has announced his intention to run for the French Presidency as a independent candidate.

Cantona, 45, who is current Director of Soccer at the New York Cosmos, scored 64 goals in 144 games for Manchester United, and winning four Premier League titles before retiring in 1997.

The mercurial Frenchman, with the economic decline across Europe, can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch the youth of France suffer further.

He is required to have 500 signatures in support of his Presidential bid, so Cantona will now spend the coming months lobbying for support.

In a letter printed by the French newspaper Liberation, the former Manchester United star said (originally in French): "This engagement obliges me to speak, more earnestly than usual, but also with a keen sense of my responsibility, at a time when our country faces difficult choices which will be decisive for its future."

If Cantona is successful in obtaining the 500 signatures he will enter the election first round ballot in April, with the top two polling candidates going into a second round in May.

Cantona has a history of extravagant statements going back to his days at Manchester United when he was banned for eight months in 1995 for attacking a fan after being verbally abused at Crystal Palace's ground Selhurst Park.