Loach’s longtime scriptwriter Paul Laverty said he had spent two days with Cantona to get to know the player before writing his part and had asked him what his favourite memory of his playing career had been.

“I was convinced it was going to be some cracking goal but then Eric said, no it was a pass and that was a real, real gift and it became part of the package of the whole story,” he said.

The filmmakers could not find footage of the pass to teammate Ryan Giggs, but another, delivered by Cantona to set up a goal by Denis Irwin, is among several clips from the player’s career shown in the film.

“The best things we do, we do as a team,” said Loach, a longtime football fan.

But he was wary about combining sport and film too closely.

“In the game, you go from despair to hope to triumph to sadness to elation within an hour and three quarters. If a film could achieve that it would be some film, I tell you.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/cantona-scores-at-cannes-1687107.html