Eric Cantona thinks his new music career is the "closest thing" to his time in football.

The retired Manchester United legend is releasing his debut four-track EP 'I'll Make My Own Heaven' on October 20, with the collection recorded live to create a specific style and mood.

He's quoted by the Daily Star newspaper's Wired column as saying: "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.

"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 Frenchman - whose style appears to have been partly influenced by the likes of Leonard Cohen and Serge Gainsbourg - is set to hit the road for a sell-out live tour, and he's keen for fans to keep their phones in their pockets at the gigs.

He said: "There are drugs, there are alcohol and today, there are social networks. We need to realise that.

"Maybe I come across as an old fool, but I don't care."

Cantona explained how he realised the negative impact phones can have when he was on a train journey recently annd saw a couple sat opposite him who "didn't once look up" on the journey from Paris to Avignon.

He added: "They didn't see one village they passed, not one prairie or animal running in the fields, not one bird, not one person who was working.

"These guys were on Instagram looking at rubbish."

He pointed out that "it's possible" for people to shun social media or even having a phone, noting that "silence really has meaning".

He said: "There are silences that say so much. It's a shape to deprive ourselves of silence.

"The more we advance, the less room for silence in the media. It's very important to be bored. Boredom is important to feed the imagination."