Éric Daniel Pierre Cantona (born May 24, 1966) is a French former footballer of the 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 was born and grew up in Marseille. His first club was AJ 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 FC 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 Olympique de Marseille (also known as "L'OM") for a French record fee. He quite often showed signs of being 'short tempered'. During a friendly game against Torpedo Moscow Cantona ripped off and threw away his jersey after being substituted. His club responded by banning him for a month. A few weeks later he insulted the coach of the national team on TV and despite apologising was banned from internationals for a year.

Cantona moved to Bordeaux on loan and then to Montpellier. At Montpellier, a fight with one of his team-mates 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.

At Marseille however, Cantona was continually at odds with the chairman Bernard Tapie, and despite helping the team win the French Division 1 title, he was transferred to Nimes the following season. During a game he threw the ball at the referee, having been angered by one of his decisions. The FFF banned him for a month. Cantona responded by insulting each member once again, and his ban was increased to 2 months. For Cantona this was the last straw and he decided to retire from football in 1991.

Thanks to pressure from high profile football fans such as Michel Platini, Cantona was persuaded to make a comeback and moved to England to restart his career.

England

Leeds United

After having originally come to England for a trial with Sheffield Wednesday, in February 1992 Cantona joined Leeds United, where he was a prominant figure in 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 1992-1993 season, which saw Leeds finishing 17th in the newly formed Premier League (three places above relegation), moving to Manchester United in November 1992 for the relatively small fee of 1.2 million pounds, much to the disgust of the Leeds United fans.

Manchester United

United's season had been disappoionting up to Éric's signing, as they had had problems scoring goals, partly caused by the sale of Mark Robins. However, Cantona quickly settled into the team, not only scoring many goals but also creating chances for the other players. For the next two years, United went on an amazing run, winning the inaugural Premiership in 1993 (their first Championship title in 26 years) and then "the double" in 1994, with Cantona's two penalties helping them to a 4-0 win over Chelsea in the F.A. Cup Final.

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 an allegedly abusive Crystal Palace fan, Matthew Simmons. At a press conference called later, Cantona gave what is perhaps his most famous quote. 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 trawlers... it's because they think... Sardines will be thrown into the Sea"[1]. 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, as in 1992-93, their prospects of winning the league were not looking good. After Ryan Giggs (the one player Cantona claimed had a telepathic understanding with him) had been upended, Cantona scored a penalty against Liverpool in his first game after the ban, and his goals helped United to recapture the league having been twelve points behind Newcastle United in January 1996, virtually going on a one man crusade for the championship title at several important junctures. Often, it would be a spate of 1-0 wins for United with Cantona the goal scorer. Fittingly, he also scored the same 1-0 winning goal in that year's F.A. Cup Final, scoring in his last game of the season against the team he played against in his first game of the season, Liverpool . 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 were the first team to win "the double" twice.

Cantona galvanised the United team to greater success in Europe the following year, with the likes of Ryan Giggs & 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 six league titles in seven years, the exception being the 1995 season which he had largely missed through suspension. At the end of an admittedly lacklusture season by his standards, his announcement that he was retiring from football at the age of 30 still came as a surprise. Shortly afterwards, he became captain of the French National Beach Football team.

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.

French National Team

Having made his international début against West Germany in August 1987, Eric Cantona was the favourite of then French team manager Michel Platini, who 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 Cantona's career. They failed to win a single game in the European Championship, held in Sweden in 1992, despite the striking partnership of Cantona and Jean-Pierre Papin. Platini resigned after the finals to be replaced by Gerard 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 suffice. David Ginola lost the ball in the game which led to Bulgaria's winning goal by Emil Kostadinov. Gerard Houllier resigned and Aimé Jacquet took over. Eric Cantona was reportedly angry with Ginola after the game.

Jacquet began to rebuild the national team in preparation for Euro 96 (the 1996 European Championship) and appointed Cantona as the captain. Cantona held this position 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 Zinedine Zidane, as Jacquet had revamped the squad with some new blood and built it around Zidane. Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin, and David Ginola were never again selected for the French team and missed Euro 96. Though there was criticism about Cantona's ommission, 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 ^[1]. The decision was vindicated as Les Bleus subsequently won the World Cup in 1998.

To this day, Cantona still harbours resentment for the national team but also admiration for his adopted country; at Euro 2004 and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he asserted he would support England and not France; France went all the way to the final in the latter tournament.

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 cameo 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. In a worldwide advertising campaign during the run-up to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he starred as the organiser of "underground" games between football superstars like Thierry Henry, 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, Cantona appears as the lead spokesman for the "Joga Bonito" organization, an association destined to eliminate acting and fake play from football. He also starred in an Irish Euromillions advertisement.

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.

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

Filmography

A full list of films featuring Eric Cantona can be found at: Eric Cantona at the Internet Movie Database

• 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! - 2001 - Joueur de pétanque 2
• L'Outremangeur - 2003 - Séléna
• La vie est à nous - 2005
• Une belle histoire - 2005

Quotations

By him

• "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea".

• "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 three 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 overintellectualising 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 deserves 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. I would love him to save me a place in his team - George Best that is, not God."

• "I am God."

• "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.

• Cantona before entering court "We stayed at the Croydon Park hotel,' Ince remembers. 'So we got up in the morning and I've got me suit on - the nuts, know what I mean? I knock on Eric'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".

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." (Commentator for Manchester United F.C. vs. Sunderland A.F.C. match at Old Trafford, 21st of December, 1996.) [2]

• "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, pays a fine compliment to Eric)
• "Who needs Pele when you've got Eric Cantona?!" Martin Tyler commentating on Manchester United FC vs. Chelsea FC in 1993/1994 season. Cantona had just rattled the bar from the halfway line.