Football Special Report: Tribute to a Legend – Eric Cantona
Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona – enough said. One runs out of superlatives praising the legend that is Eric Cantona. Born to Albert Cantona and Eleonore Raurich in Marseille, Cantona fell in love with the beautiful game at a very young age. Cantona started his
youth career with Auxerre but his development was halted when he had to leave to complete his mandatory army training.
Upon his return, he rejoined Auxerre and walked in to the starting eleven. Unfortunately for the French game, his potential was never truly realised. From 1983 to 1991, Cantona played for six different clubs often on loan. His aggressive nature got him tagged
as a trouble maker. French legend Michel Platini came to his rescue and advised him to play in the more aggressive English league.
Leeds United signed the forward in 1992 and he scored 9 goals in 28 appearances with them. Leeds United got relegated at the end of 1992 season and Cantona moved to Manchester United for the modest fee of 1.2 million pounds. Sir Alex Ferguson may have not
realised it then, but he had just pulled arguably the biggest bargain signing in the English football history. The next five years that Cantona spent at Old Trafford are engraved in the club’s illustrious history.
With an upturned collar, Cantona dazzled his fans. Along with his strike partner Mark Hughes and a certain prodigious youngster named Ryan Giggs, Cantona conquered the Premier league pitches one after another. During his five years with the Red Devils, Cantona
won an astonishing 4 league titles. Indeed he is often credited with making Manchester United the Premier League powerhouse that it is today.
Apart from all the trophies and personal accolades, Cantona made the news headlines when he delivered a stunning Kung-Fu kick to a rival fan upon his taunting. The kick has become the stuff of legends with the Red Devil fans. Such extreme reaction got him
a yearlong ban from all forms of official football. Cantona was asked about his best moment during his playing career after his retirement, “My best moment? I have a lot of good moments but the one I prefer is when I kicked the hooligan” was his answer.
Cantona was going strong at the age of 30 when he shell-shocked the fans and the Club alike with his retirement announcement. His reasons were simple “I stopped playing football because I'd done as much as I could. I needed something which was going to excite
me as much as football had excited me”
Five years at a club are not considered a very long time but Cantona had already become a legend. Upon his retirement he declared that his biggest fear was that fans of the Red Devils will forget him. But they haven’t chants of “ooh aaah Cantona, ooh aaah
Cantona” still echo in the stadium during the cup matches.
For all his talent, Cantona never lived up to his potential on the international level. Despite scoring 20 goals in 45 International appearances, he failed to win any trophy. His character was too hot to handle for French football authorities and he was
frozen out from the squad after the infamous kung-fu kick incident. His resentment towards the authorities is so intense that Cantona now supports the England National team at the international level.
Legends like Cantona are born once in a decade. His aura and personality brought a different dimension to the sport altogether. Cantona won a horde of awards and honours during his career but the legend is far from content with his achievements.
“I'm proud of what I achieved there, but a life built on memories is not much of a life” – Eric Cantona
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