The logo says 'England 2018', but the accent of the man waxing lyrical with the flowing grey locks could never have come from near the White Cliffs of Dover or north of the Watford Gap.
David Ginola, best known for his Gallic flair down the left wing in the 1990s and his famous falling out with then France manager Gerard Houllier, is about as French as you can get. So why is the former heart-throb and one-time star of a famous shampoo TV commercial ('Because I'm worth it' was the punch-line) aligning his highly marketable image with the bid of England to host the 2018 Fifa World Cup?
Last week, Ginola, the former Tottenham and Newcastle United star, joined England 2018 president David Dein and chief executive Andy Anson in wooing Asian Football Confederation (AFC) officials in Kuala Lumpur.
'My time in England was probably the best years in my career and I'm very proud of what I achieved there when I was a player,' Ginola said. 'It's just a fantastic feeling to promote English football around the world and to say good things about it is very easy, especially in Asia.'
Ginola spent seven years with four English Premier League clubs and won two awards for 1999 Player of the Year, although it was during the same season that Manchester United collected their treble of trophies. In 2008 he was inducted into the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame. He had helped the club lift the 1999 League Cup.
Since retiring in 2002, the charismatic Ginola has dabbled in acting, modelling, golf and winemaking, but is now busy helping his adopted home of England win the right to host the 21st edition of the World Cup. The six other bids are from Australia, Holland/Belgium, Japan, Spain/Portugal, Russia and the United States, with Fifa, world soccer's governing body, announcing its decision in December.
