THE KING HAS SPOKEN

Cantona interviewed in the Sunday Telegraph talking about an exhibition of photographs he has taken which are on display (Galerie M, 4 rue Tarbe, 75017, Paris).

Asked about his recent comments that he supported England rather than France in Portugal:

"When I hear about the English it brings back much emotion for me."

- Was he merely being provocative?

"I am not in the habit of saying things I do not feel."

- Does he miss the adulation of the crowd chanting his name?

"It touched me, but it also worried me because it had to come to an end. Thankfully, I was always prepared for that day. Even when I do something I am passionate about - and everything I do I am passionate about - there is always in some corner of my mind the idea that it will come to an end.

"Hey, perhaps one day people will be chating my name in the cinemas and art galleries instead."

On his exhibition:

"I prefer to call them images rather than photographs. These photographs, these images, are a kind of exit from reality. You see them in what you want. That's why I've called them 'With title' as opposed to 'Untitled', when in fact they have no titles.

"I have a need to go deep inside myself to find my vision and to give that vision to the world. My ambition with anything is to go as far as possible and to know no limits. I am lucky to have so many passions, to have a gymnastic spirit."

- The journalist writes about a "mystifying" telegram from Cantona to Howard Wilkinson ('The salmon that idles its way downstream will never leap the waterfall') and asks Eric what the sardines and trawler quote meant:

"It meant - whatever people think it meant."

- On quitting football:

"I could have continued making the sacrifice, doing the high-level training, taking the money, but I was tired and it was no longer a passion.

"Part of my character, part of my essential thinking, is the quest for perfection. To be really successful you have to push yourself to the limit and I felt I had reached that limit.

"I have always acted before thinking and I continue to do so. I was tempestuous but it made for a rich life. The way forward is to try to understand why I did something and to try not to do it a second time. But then other things happen and I have difficulty controlling myself.

"I have absolutely no regrets."