The retired French soccer player-turned actor Eric Cantona insists that a French soft-porn film in which he stars is “a piece of art,” the Daily Telegraph reports.

The film includes a scene in which the former Manchester United star’s character, called The Stud, participates in an orgy using a prosthetic penis.

Film critics have lauded You and the Night as a “superb artistic orgy” and described it as “soft porn meets art-house cinema.”

Defending the film, Cantona said, “Porn? No, it’s not porn. It’s a piece of art. It’s just a piece of art.” He added: “This kind of story, when you choose to do it, you have to know the director. If it’s somebody special, if it’s a real artist, you can do it.”

Cantona has made several films since he shocked soccer fans by announcing his retirement at the peak of his career in 1997 to concentrate on acting.

Comparing his job as an actor to his time as an elite athlete he said, “We are in front of an audience, we are in front of everything. It’s a public job so we have to share it with the people … For me, it’s very similar. It’s just another game. So, I’m not bored.”