Éric Cantona

Éric Daniel Pierre Cantona (born 24 May 1966 in Paris raised in Marseille) is a French former footballer of the late 1980s and 1990s. He ended his professional football career at Manchester United where he won four Premiership titles in five years, including two League and FA Cup "doubles". Cantona is often regarded as having played a major talismanic role in the revival of Manchester United as a football powerhouse and he enjoys iconic status at the club. In 2001 he was voted their player of the century, and to this day United fans refer to him as "Eric the King".

Career

France

Cantona's first club was Auxerre, where he spent two years in the youth team before making his debut in 1983.

The whole of 1984 saw Cantona's footballing career put on hold as he carried out his national service. After discharge he was loaned out to Martigues in the French Second Division. Rejoining Auxerre and signing a professional contract in 1986, his performances in the First Division were good enough to earn him his first full international cap.

He was part of the French under-21 side that won the 1988 U21 European Championship and shortly after that success, he transferred to Marseille, the club he supported as a boy, for a French record fee. Cantona had quite often shown signs of being 'short tempered' in his career to date, and in January 1989 during a friendly game against Torpedo Moscow he ripped off and threw away his jersey after being substituted. His club responded by banning him for a month. Just a few months earlier, he had been banned from international matches for insulting the national coach on TV.

Having struggled to settle at Marseille, Cantona moved to Bordeaux on a six-month loan and then to Montpellier on a year-long loan. At Montpellier, he was involved in a fight with team-mate Jean-Claude Lemoult and threw his boots in Lemoult's face. The incident led to six players demanding that Cantona be sacked. However, with the support of team-mates such as Laurent Blanc and Carlos Valderrama, the club retained his services and Cantona was instrumental as the team went on to win the French Cup. His form persuaded Marseille to take him back.

Back at Marseille, Cantona initially played well under the new coach Franz Beckenbauer. However, the Marseille chairman Bernard Tapie was not satisfied with the results, and replaced Beckenbauer with Raymond Goethals with whom Cantona did not see eye-to-eye. Cantona was also continually at odds with Tapie and despite helping the team win the French Division 1 title, he was transferred to Nîmes the following season.

In December 1991, during a match for Nîmes he threw the ball at the referee, having been angered by one of his decisions. He was summoned to a disciplinary hearing by the French Football Federation and was banned for a month. Cantona responded by walking up to each member of the hearing committee in turn and calling him an "idiot". His ban was increased to 2 months. For Cantona this was the last straw and he announced his retirement from football in December 1991.

The French national team coach Michel Platini was a keen fan of Cantona, and persuaded him to make a comeback. On the advice of Gérard Houllier, he moved to England to restart his career.

England

Leeds United

In February 1992 Cantona came to England for a trial with Sheffield Wednesday, managed by Trevor Francis. When offered an extension to the trial, he found this insulting and subsequently joined Leeds United A.F.C., where he was an important part of the team that won the final old First Division championship in 1991-92. He was also inspirational in the Charity Shield 4-3 win over Liverpool in 1992, scoring a hat-trick.

He however left Leeds before the end of the 1992-93 season, which saw them finishing 17th out of 22 in the newly formed Premier League, moving to Manchester United in November 1992 for the relatively small fee of £1.2 million, much to the disgust of the Leeds fans, although Howard Wilkinson, the Leeds United manager, was eager for him to leave.

Manchester United

Cantona's first appearance for Manchester United was against Benfica in Lisbon, in a friendly match to mark the 50th birthday of Eusebio. He made his competitive debut as a second half substitute against Manchester City at Old Trafford, on December 6th, 1992. United won 2-1, though Cantona made little impact that day.

United's season had been disappointing up to Cantona's signing. They had had problems scoring goals: Brian McClair and Mark Hughes were off form, and summer signing Dion Dublin had broken his leg early in the season. However, Cantona quickly settled into the team, not only scoring many goals but also creating chances for the other players. His first United goal came in a 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on December 19th 1992. It was against Tottenham Hotspur on January 9th 1993, that Cantona really showed his class, scoring one and having a hand in the other goals in a 4-1 victory. For the next two years, United went on an amazing run, winning the inaugural Premiership in 1993. By winning that title, Cantona became the only player ever to win back-to-back titles with different clubs.

They retained the Premiership and with Cantona's two penalties helping them to a 4-0 win over Chelsea in the FA Cup Final. Cantona was voted PFA Player Of The Year in 1994.

Cantona then became infamous for an incident that occurred on 25 January 1995. In an away match against Crystal Palace, after being sent off by the referee for a vengeful kick on Palace defender Richard Shaw (after Shaw had pulled his shirt), he launched a 'kung-fu' style kick against a Crystal Palace fan, Matthew Simmons. Simmons was later tried for threatening language and behaviour, and attacked the prosecution counsel after being found guilty, leaping over a bench and executing a flying kick of his own. He was sentenced to seven days in jail, but only served 24 hours of his sentence.^[2] At a press conference called later, Cantona gave what is perhaps his most famous quotation. As the journalists gathered to hear him speak, Cantona entered the room, sat down and said, in a slow and deliberate manner:

"When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown in to the sea"

He then got up from his seat and left, leaving many of the assembled crowd bemused. He was sentenced to 120 hours of community service after an appeal court overturned a 2 week prison sentence for assault. He was also suspended by The Football Association until the following October. Manchester United eventually lost the Premiership title to Blackburn.

There had been much speculation that Cantona would leave English football when his ban finished, but Alex Ferguson persuaded him to stay in Manchester and Cantona was once again inspirational. United had sold several key players at the start of the season and replaced them with players from the club's youth team and their prospects of winning the league were not looking good. Much hype surrounded Cantona's return game, against Liverpool on 1 October 1995. In the match, Cantona set up a goal for Nicky Butt inside 2 minutes, and then scored a penalty after Ryan Giggs (the one player Cantona claimed had a telepathic understanding with him) had been upended. Eight months without competitive football had inevitably taken its toll and Cantona struggled for form prior to Christmas. Things then changed, however, with his goals helping United to recapture the league having been twelve points behind Newcastle United in January 1996. There was a spate of important 1-0 wins for United, with Cantona the goal scorer, but a 0-3 victory against Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium decided the title. Fittingly, it was the same 1-0 scoreline, and the same scorer, in that year's FA Cup Final against Liverpool, with Cantona becoming the first foreign player to lift the FA Cup as captain. The strike of that match happened with 5 minutes remaining and was perhaps Eric Cantona's most famous goal of his career. A corner from the left side troubled Liverpool keeper David James who attempted to fist the ball out of the box. Instead, the ball was deflected down the middle to the top of the box. Cantona, who had backed away when the corner was sent, lined up and took an extremely athletic twisting volley with his right foot firing the ball through a sea of defenders into the net. The game was won. His redemption was complete after the scandals and lows of a year earlier. Cantona gave a post-match interview saying: "You know that's life. Up and down." Manchester United became the first team to win "the double" twice.

Cantona galvanised the United team to greater success with the likes of Ryan Giggs and youngsters David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville emerging under his influence. As United retained the league in the 1996-97 season, Cantona had won four league titles in five years with United(six in seven years including those won with Marseille and Leeds United), the exception being the 1995 season which he had largely missed through suspension. At the end of an admittedly lacklustre season by his standards, which was fuelled by United's elimination at the hands of Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, he announced that he was retiring from football at the age of 30 which came as a surprise, and was met with great dismay by United fans. His final competitive game came against West Ham on 11th May 1997, and his final appearance before retiring was five days later on Friday 16th May in a testimonial for David Busst against Coventry City at Highfield Road, in which Eric scored twice in a 2-2 draw.

In 2004 Cantona was quoted as saying "I'm so proud the fans still sing my name, but I fear tomorrow they will stop. I fear it because I love it. And everything you love, you fear you will lose."

In 2006 The Sun newspaper reported Cantona as saying that Manchester United had lost their soul and that the current players were a bunch of sheep. The Old Trafford idol reckoned the days of maverick entertainers like himself and George Best were gone and feared the Red Devils were betraying their past by putting out boring, functional teams. However on the Contrary he was interviewed in the Number 7's issue of 'United Magazine' in August 2006 stating he will only come back to Manchester United as 'Number 1' (meaning not return as assistant manager or coach) and would create a team like no other and play the way he thinks football should be played.

Cantona opposed the Malcolm Glazer takeover of Manchester United, and has stated that he will not return to the club, even as a manager, while the Glazer family is in charge. This will come as a disappointment to the many United fans who voted him as their choice for United's next manager in survey over the summer of 2000.^[3]

French National Team

Eric Cantona was given his full international début against West Germany in August 1987 by the then national team manager Henri Michel. In September 1988, angered after being dropped from the national team, Cantona insulted Michel in a post-match TV interview and was indefinitely banned from all international matches. However, Michel was sacked shortly after that having failed to qualify for the 1990 World Cup.

The new coach was Michel Platini and one of his first acts was to recall Cantona who was a favourite of his. He claimed that Cantona would be selected as long as he was playing competitive top-class football; Platini had initiated Cantona's move to England to restart his career. France qualified for the 1992 European Football Championship held in Sweden, but failed to win a single game despite the striking partnership of Cantona and Jean-Pierre Papin. Platini resigned after the finals to be replaced by Gérard Houllier.

Under Houllier, France then failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.A. after losing the final game 2:1 at home to Bulgaria when a draw would have sufficed. David Ginola gave away possession in the game which led to Bulgaria's winning goal by Emil Kostadinov. Cantona was reportedly angry with Ginola after the game. Houllier resigned and Aimé Jacquet took over.

Jacquet began to rebuild the national team in preparation for Euro 96 (the 1996 European Championship) and appointed Cantona as the captain. Cantona remained the captain until the Selhurst Park incident in January 1995. The suspension which resulted from this incident also prevented him from playing in international matches.

By the time Cantona's suspension had been completed, he had lost his role as the team's playmaker to another star, Zinedine Zidane, as Jacquet had revamped the squad with some new blood and built it around Zidane. Cantona, Papin and Ginola were never again selected for the French team and missed Euro 96. Though there was criticism about Cantona's omission, as he was playing his best football in the FA Premier League, Jacquet himself stated that the team had done well without Cantona, and that he wanted to keep faith with the players who had taken them so far.^[4] The decision was vindicated as Les Bleus subsequently won the World Cup in 1998.

To this day, Cantona still harbours resentment for the people at the head of his national team but also admiration for his adopted football country; at Euro 2004 and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he supported England and not France.[2].

Career in "retirement"

Cantona's subsequent career has mostly been in the French cinema, primarily as an actor although he has also directed a short film Apporte-moi ton amour in 2002; outside of France, he had a role as the French ambassador in the movie Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett in 1998. See filmography below.

Since retiring from professional football Cantona has appeared in numerous European television advertisements, especially for Nike. Cantona made cameos in two memorable commercials, one starring the Brazilian national team playing football in an airport, and another involving the national teams of both Brazil and Portugal. In a worldwide advertising campaign during the run-up to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he starred as the organiser of "underground" games (branded by Nike as "Scorpion KO") between football players like Thierry Henry, Hidetoshi Nakata, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Luís Figo. In an earlier UK Nike commercial, he appeared playing "amateur" football on Hackney Marshes with other stars including Ian Wright, Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler. In a Nike campaign in the advance of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, nearly ten years after his retirement, Cantona appears as the lead spokesman for the "Joga Bonito" organization, an association attempting to eliminate acting and fake play from football. He also starred in an Irish EuroMillions advertisement. He has gained a considerable amount of weight since retiring from professional football, rendering him almost unrecognizable from his playing days.

Shortly after his departure from Manchester United, Cantona became captain of the French National Beach Football team. Cantona has continued his interest in beach soccer games in southern Asia and at the Inaugural Kronenbourg beach soccer in 2002, in the city of Brighton. He managed the French Team which won the inaugural FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in 2005 in Rio de Janeiro. He also coached the 2006 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup French National Team, which finished in third place.

In 1998, the Football League, as part of its centenary season celebrations, included Cantona on its list of 100 League Legends.

Cantona's achievements in the English League were further marked in 2002 when he was made an Inaugural Inductee of the English Football Hall of Fame.

Family

Cantona was married to Isabelle Ferrer, they have two children. He is now married to actress Rachida Brakni. His brother Joël was also a footballer and played for Olympique de Marseille, Újpesti TE and Stockport County.

Partial filmography

• Le bonheur est dans le pré - 1995 - Lionel
• Eleven Men Against Eleven - 1995 - Player (uncredited)
• Elizabeth - 1998 - Monsieur de Foix
• Mookie - 1998 - Antoine Capella
• Les enfants du marais - 1999 - Jo Sardi
• La grande vie! (English title: The High Life) - 2001 - Joueur de pétanque 2
• L'Outremangeur (English title: The Over-Eater) - 2003 - Séléna
• Les Clefs de bagnole (English title: The Car Keys) - 2003
• La vie est à nous - 2005
• Une belle histoire - 2005
• Lisa et le pilote d'avion - 2007
• Le Deuxième souffle (English title: Second Wind) - 2007
• JACK SAYS - 2007

Quotations

By him

• "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.[3]"
• "My best moment? I have a lot of good moments but the one I prefer is when I kicked the hooligan."
• "I didn't study; I live. You can't study these things - life teaches them to you. You don't find them in a book... I've read a lot of Socrates on Page 3 of the Sun."
• "Sometimes in life one experiences an emotion which is so strong that it is difficult to think, or to reason. Sometimes you get submerged by emotion. I think it's very important to express it - which doesn't necessarily mean hitting someone. I am very mistrustful of people who are constantly over-intellectualising things. It kills passion. You have to allow yourself to lose control from time to time."
• "I feel close to the rebelliousness and vigour of the youth here. Perhaps time will separate us, but nobody can deny that here, behind the windows of Manchester, there is an insane love of football, of celebration and of music."
• "When you are a rich man you are proud to own a Rolls Royce and when you are a poor man you are proud to own a Renault."
• "France does not deserve Auxerre... England maybe, but France does not." about his youth club AJ Auxerre.
• "The Irish public should bow to the feet of Roy Keane, not slate him as he is the best player they will ever have to boast."
• "After his first training session in heaven, George Best, from his favourite right wing, turned the head of God who was filling in at left-back. He nutmegged him and scored a wonderful goal from 30 yards out. I would love him to save me a place in his team - George Best that is, not God."
• "I am God."
• "Football is like making love, if you can't last 90 minutes like me, you wont win"
• "I might have said that, but on the whole I talk a lot of rubbish."
• "I don't play against a particular team. I play against the idea of losing." The latter part of the quote was scrawled on Cantona's body for his official photograph for FIFA 100, Pelé's list of the 125 greatest living footballers.
• Described national teammate Didier Deschamps derisively as "the water-carrier". Cantona meant that Deschamps only existed to pass the ball to more talented players.
• "I had heart, and I know without heart you cannot play."
• "Joga Bonito! Play Beautiful!"
• "No, it is me." (After being asked whether Zinédine Zidane or Michel Platini was the greatest-ever French footballer [4])
• "Goals are like babies... They are all beautiful."

About him

• "How to create space, and then weave past a couple of defenders, McClair, here's Cantona! He's done it! That is magnificent by Cantona. And after all his problems, and his lack of form, and the criticism that's come his way, there is the perfect riposte." (Famous Words of commentator Jon Champion in the game between Manchester United F.C. vs. Sunderland A.F.C. match at Old Trafford, 21st of December, 1996.)
• "I'd give all the champagne I've ever drunk to be playing alongside him in a big European match at Old Trafford." (George Best, 1960s Manchester United legend, Éric pays a fine compliment to George)
• "Collar turned up, back straight, chest stuck out, he glided into the arena as if he owned the place. Any arena, but nowhere more effectively than Old Trafford. This was his stage. He loved it, the crowd loved him" (Roy Keane, Cantona's successor as Manchester United captain.)
• "Who needs Pelé when you've got Éric Cantona?!" Martin Tyler commentating on Manchester United FC vs. Chelsea FC in the 1993-94 season. Cantona had just rattled the bar from the halfway line.
• Paul Ince about Cantona before he entered court: 'We stayed at the Croydon Park hotel. So we got up in the morning and I've got me suit on - the nuts, know what I mean? I knock on Éric's door and he's standing in jacket, white shirt, long collars like that [he gestures to describe long, pointed collars], unbuttoned so you can see his chest. "Eric, you can't go to court like that", I told him and he says, "I am Cantona, I can go as I want"'.
• "If a Frenchman goes on about seagulls, trawlers and sardines, he’s called a philosopher. I’d just be called a short Scottish bum talking crap." Gordon Strachan in response to Cantona's famous quote following the 1995 Crystal Palace-Simmons incident.
• "Cantona making an early run...here he is. Lovely goal. Lovely goal." This commentary was used in a song "Ooh Aah Cantona" and Man United fans still recite the commentary to one another.