James’ first match in France was PSG v Montpellier at the Parc Des Princes in 1989. Details are hazy, but Eric Cantona scored the goal for the visitors in a 2-1 defeat.

Already crazy about French football, he went on to produce 20-odd issues of French football fanzine Aux Armes! from 1993 to 2000, flogging it to a handful of fellow followers and making around £96 profit in the process.

Now a journalist, he has written about French football for The Guardian, When Saturday Comes, FourFourTwo and frenchleague.com. He has too many favourite French players to list, although Eric di Meco, the ex-Marseille left-back who made Stuart Pearce look like a wimp, gets a special mention.

James was editor of Inside Edge magazine, produced a 33pt profit on Euro 2004 as the Guardian Unlimited tipster, a 10pt profit on the Premier League for The New Paper in Singapore in 2007-08 and backed Italy to win the last World Cup. He dreams of making enough money from gambling to buy a small, French fourth division club and leading them to Ligue 1 and French Cup glory.

• World Cup 2010 Betting: Republic of Ireland v France
• Premier League Betting Preview: Chelsea v Manchester United
• Champions League Soccer Picks: Lyon v Liverpool
• Champions League Betting: Rubin Kazan v Barcelona
• Ligue 1 Betting: Back fit-again striker Erding to fire PSG to victory
• Champions League Betting: Lyon v Liverpool