Amy Lawrence on why an international manager has ended up at Cambridge

Not for the first time in his eclectic football journey, Claude Le Roy has left his friends baffled by a career move. When he packed his suitcases, aged 36, for Cameroon, when the Indomitable Lions were still dormant, they quizzed him, 'Do they have football there?' The same question followed his decision to take off for Senegal, the United Arab Emirates, then Malaysia, then China. Now, they are grilling him once again, 'Claude, do they have football in Cambridge?'

Le Roy 's first public appearance at the Abbey Stadium coincided with April Fools' Day, and this is a footballing marriage that needed to be seen to be believed. Once Cambridge United fans had got over the initial 'Claude who?' and realised he was the guy with the long blond hair and hangdog face who had guided Cameroon with such élan, whose managerial CV includes a stint at Paris Saint-Germain and a consultant role with AC Milan, they couldn't help but feel sceptical about why he would be attracted to a lowly, provincial English club on the slide. But that is to miss the point about Le Roy.

His family are, by his own definition, 'citizens of the world' and as such, money motivates him far less than material for life's rich tapestry. This is a man who is writing a movie in his spare time - 'a love story in the world of football'. He is a bon vivant , a natural philosopher and above all a football man to the core.

He began work at Cambridge before even talking about a wage and appreciates this is a job about soul, not salary. There is no need for anything more than a 'moral contract' at this stage. This still doesn't quite answer the 'Why Cambridge?' question. The truth is he is doing it for others more than himself. He is doing it to help friends. One is his former assistant in China, Hervé Renard, who has been given a job that will broaden his horizons as United's coach. The other is Edward Freeman, the man who turned Manchester United into a business in the early 1990s and who agreed to help Cambridge to find a way out of a frightening hole by coaxing an old pal. Although Le Roy wasn't free, as he is still contractually bound to French TV station Canal Plus, he came up with the solution to send Renard to do the day-to-day work while he would come whenever possible.

So, this week he will be in Spain to commentate on Deportivo La Coruña v AC Milan, before hopping on to the next cheap flight to England to install himself in the dugout for Cambridge's Easter calendar against York City and Doncaster Rovers. It's all part of the kick for a man who specialises in enigmatic jobs. 'Yes,' he agrees. 'Even when I left for the Emirates very few people were speaking about the Middle East in football. People thought I must be getting big money but it was the weakest salary in all my career.' Until now? 'Of course!'

Le Roy recalls the shock of first arriving in Cameroon, a job he maintains was 'a tolerant rather than a political choice', which tells you something about his ideals. 'For my first training session with the national team there were 30,000 people in the tribunes,' he remembers fondly, before adding: 'You feel very quickly that you cannot make a mistake.' Cambridge United, meanwhile, may struggle to get 3,000 to a match. 'That's not the point,' he argues. 'If you have 3,000 people who love their club it is very important and gives a big vibration.' It didn't go unnoticed that United fans raised £100,000 to keep the club afloat six weeks before Christmas.

In an ideal world Cambridge will sail to safety, persuade Le Roy to sign a two-year contract, and press ahead with a five-year plan that includes redeveloping their ramshackle stadium, gaining full academy status to help the youth system to flourish, pressing ahead with Le Roy's intriguing idea of skating round the work-permit problem by importing players who might also qualify to study at the university, and clambering into the First Division.

Le Roy, though, won't kid anyone. 'I cannot say I will be here for a long time,' he admits. 'I want to be honest. I want to sleep well always. I told Cambridge I am coming, I bring you a very good coach, it will be good publicity, and we'll see.'

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