Former Manchester United superstar Eric Cantona has returned to football in a directorial role in the USA.

The Frenchman has been appointed as the Director of Soccer at New York Cosmos, who are hoping for a return to top flight football after being disbanded in 1985.

The Cosmos were the biggest club in American soccer back in the 1970s with the likes of Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Neeskens and Giorgio Chinaglia all involved and now the 2011 version, which hopes to enter Major League Soccer in the next few years, has lured Cantona to the fold.

Cantona said he was aiming to push the Cosmos into the stratosphere of world football.

"I am very honoured to join the legendary New York Cosmos. It's a big project, a wonderful project," he said.

"The Cosmos are very strong, beautifully made, with a great past. It's kind of a mix between football and art.

"I will do everything I can to help us first find our way to regain the No 1 position in the United States, and then for us to become one of the best clubs in the world."

Cosmos chairman Paul Kemsley, the former Tottenham vice-chairman, said that he could never imagine having a person like Cantona to be the face of the club.

"Three years ago, when I first had the idea of reviving The New York Cosmos, I couldn't have dreamt we'd be able to attract an icon of the likes of Eric Cantona to the club," he added.

"It's a personal thrill for me, as he was one of my heroes, and it is a further endorsement to the global attraction and power that The New York Cosmos carries."