Weeks after a sweaty Emmanuel Macron was seen hitting a punch bag in an apparent show of virility, the French president turned his sporting attention to football on Wednesday for a football match.

With wife Brigitte Macron applauding from the stands, Mr Macron donned his boots for a good cause – a charity match at the Stade Bernard Giroux outside Paris to raise money for children’s hospitals.

The star-studded support cast at the Variétés Club de France match included current French football coach Didier Deschamps along with Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desailly and Robert Pirès, who all played in France’s victorious 1998 World Cup final against Brazil.

Also on the pitch were Belgian Eden Hazard, Ivorian Didier Drogba, Cameroonian Samuel Eto’o, Dutchman Johan Neeskens and German Jens Lehmann.

Mr Macron has already shown he can handle the ball, scoring a penalty in a previous charity match in 2021, even though some critics claimed the goalkeeper was a little obliging.