Man Utd legend Eric Cantona reveals bizarre dead pigeon ritual story whilst playing for Montpellier

Cantona will front ITV's marketing campaign. Credit: ITV

Eric Cantona. The King of Manchester. Picture it now, a dead pigeon on his head with its blood pouring down his face.

The former France forward just turned 50 and is heading up ITV's marketing around Euro 2016 - a campaign focused on superstitions.

When asked about his own playing superstitions, King Eric said: "It (superstitions) could only help me. It depended on the moment of my career - it was different when I was in Manchester, I had my collar up. One of thefirst games I played for United, I just put my shirt on, and the collar stayed up, and we won. And then I did it for every game.

"Before Manchester, it was a piece of paper with salt inside, in my socks. Even in Manchester I did it, I did both of them there."

But Cantona goes on to reveal a rather more disturbing ritual that once 'helped' his side when he was playing at Montpellier in France.

"I remember when I was in Montpellier, it wasn’t superstitious but it was kind of superstition, we lost a few games so they sent somebody to give us bad things. A guru. They called someone with live pigeons. We were all around the dressing room and for each player he had a pigeon, alive, and he put the pigeons on our heads and killed the pigeons. And all the blood was coming down our bodies. And from this time we started to win, and we won the French cup.

"Just because they thought somebody put negative things on us, you know? Charmed or cursed. So we had nothing to lose because we had lost a few games and why not try it?"

Cantona says he no longer has any superstitions now he doesn't play - but he does still believe in Lady Luck.

"I believe in luck, of course, but I don’t believe only in luck. Especially in sport, where you have to work hard and concentrate on the game, be careful in what you drink in preparation for the game. It is very important and after [that] maybe you have more luck than if you don’t work hard. Luck is important but sometimes you deserve to have luck."

Watch Cantona's Euro 2016 superstitions advert below: