Next stop for Cannes Festival star Eric Cantona: Butlins Minehead

From Cannes to Butlins in one summer – it's a leap only the great Eric Cantona could make with aplomb. The former Manchester United forward has been at the Cannes film festival to promote Looking for Eric, Ken Loach's comedy in which Cantona appears as himself. Now it turns out he is set for a further star turn at the seaside - at Butlins in Minehead when he will be visiting in his capacity as manager of France's beach soccer team
 
It is the first time England has staged the Beach Soccer Euroleague tournament in which the hosts will take on Germany, Portugal, Hungary, Switzerland and Azerbaijan as well as Cantona's France, in a three-day round-robin tournament from July 17.
 
Cantona (pictured in Cannes with his wife Rachida Brakni) is likely to be the stand-out star at the Somerset resort's 2,000-seat purpose-built stadium. The sport, which was founded in Brazil in the early 1990s, rarely attracts players from the professional grass game. England's captain, for instance, is a London taxi driver, Terry Bowes.

One exception is Azerbaijan, whose team contains members of the current international squad. ·