But his pitch to unseat Sepp Blatter and become the next president of FIFA, those qualities lasted about as long as the glossy montage to announce his candidacy.
In public relations terms, this was not a roaring success.
Suspicions had been raised by the news the former Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham player’s bid for soccer’s top job was being funded by a well-known bookmaker with a self-confessed penchant for outrageous publicity stunts.
The revelation that Ginola was being paid £250,000 ($379,000) for his involvement, with another £100,000 earmarked for the football legend’s “security,” added to his sketchiness when fielding questions about world football’s governing body and the detail of his campaign, did little to dampen the skepticism.
“I’m here today to talk about love. I’m here to share some of the most powerful emotions any of us have experienced,” was the 47-year-old’s impassioned opening gambit.
“That is what football means to me, you and the billions of fans across the planet. That’s why we’re so disappointed when we talk about some of the problems with the way our game is being run.
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David Ginola being paid £250K by a bookmaker to run for FIFA president. Bummed out the soccer/football world couldn't do better than this.
“On the flip side you’ve got the practical obstacles of getting five nominations by end of the month and the cynicism that will be generated by the fact it’s backed by a major bookmaker with a reputation for controversy and stunts.”
Gibson, who thought some of the questions directed at Ginola with the aim of tripping him up were “unfair,” said it was highly unlikely Ginola’s bid would represent a real challenge to Blatter.
“Slim to none would be a good way of summing up his chances,” he said. “I’d like to get some Paddy Power odds, if they were running the book it’d be interesting to see what odds they’d give you on him getting a nomination let alone winning the thing.
“Jerome Champagne (an independent candidate) has been going for a year and is struggling to get over that hurdle. That’s going to be a huge task for them in three weeks to get the required nominations.”
Read: From shampoo ads to FIFA’s top job
