England and disapproved of that culture, but
Eric absolutely loved it because he wanted to
feel part of the squad. He gave as good as he
got during those sessions – at the end of the
night, he’d often be the one asking when we
planned our next meeting...”
Cantona’s lifestyle was relatively modest,
as well. “Once, I remember one of the papers
did an article on the houses we were all living
in,” Steve Bruce tells FFT. “I’m sure quite a few
people were surprised to find that Eric lived in
a little terraced house in Worsley and drove
a Honda Prelude – nothing flash. I remember
him coming into training and asking, ‘What’s
all this about? Why the fuss?’ We said, ‘Maybe
they think you need a bigger house’. He said,
‘Why? I have a house in Barcelona, I also have
a house in Marseille – so I don’t need a big
house here’.”
Cantona’s return to Elland Road with
Manchester United in March 1993 wasn’t
without incident – he spat at some home fans
during the 0-0 draw and was fined £1,000 by
the FA. Chasing their first league title for 26
years, the Red Devils dropped back to third,
behind Norwich and Aston Villa, after a run of
four matches without a win. In April, a trip to
Carrow Road had the whiff of a title decider.
Cantona helped Ferguson’s side destroy
the Canaries on the counter-attack – playing
in Ryan Giggs for the opener, then scoring
himself to make it 3-0 after just 21 minutes.
It began a run of seven straight victories that
sealed the Premier League – Cantona had
won the league for a third successive season
with a third different club, and this time he’d
been absolutely crucial.
The 1993–94 campaign would bring with
it another Premier League title and 25 goals
in all competitions – his highest ever tally.
Arguably Cantona’s best league strike was
a missile of a free-kick at home to Arsenal as
United surged clear at the top very early on.
Outside of England, things went less well.
The Frenchman had scored in a 3-3 home
draw with Galatasaray in the Champions
League, then United travelled to Istanbul for
the second leg, greeted by ‘Welcome to Hell’
banners at the airport. In an incredibly hostile
atmosphere at the Ali Sami Yen, they drew
0-0 to exit the competition in November
1993, and Cantona was sent off after the
final whistle for lambasting the referee. He
was escorted off the pitch by a policeman,
who then punched him in the tunnel.
“Eric went crazy in the dressing room,” Roy
Keane later said. “The rest of us just wanted
to get out of there, but he was determined to
go back outside to sort out the rogue cop. He
insisted he was going to kill ‘that f**ker’. It
took the combined efforts of Brian Kidd
and a few players to restrain him. Normally
I wouldn’t have backed off a fight, but even
I wasn’t up for that one. There were a lot of
Turks out there.”
A fortnight later, Cantona put France
ahead in their final qualifier for the 1994
World Cup – his sixth goal of the group – only
for Bulgaria to hit back and win 2-1 in Paris,eliminating Les Bleus. “Eric is one of the
greatest players in French history – we scored
a lot together during that qualifying
campaign,” Jean-Pierre Papin says. “Our
partnership should have reached its full
potential at the World Cup in the United
States. Unfortunately, we missed out on
getting there.”
Cantona took third place in the Ballon d’Or,
beaten only by Roberto Baggio and Dennis
Bergkamp, then started to propel United
to the FA Cup final – he bagged a stunning
volley against Wimbledon at Selhurst Park,
minutes after Vinnie Jones had almost cut
him in half with an outrageous tackle. If he
reacted with surprising calmness then, the
same wasn’t true in the Premier League at
Swindon – Cantona was sent off for stamping
on John Moncur after a tussle, before getting
dismissed again at Arsenal three days later,
this time for a second bookable offence.
United lost two of the three games he
missed through suspension, as Blackburn
drew level at the top – Ferguson’s men had
been 16 points clear of them at one stage.
But Cantona returned with both goals in
victory over Manchester City, and guided his
side to their first ever double by scoring two
penalties in the FA Cup final against Chelsea.
Before the first, Chelsea skipper Dennis
Wise had wagered £50 that he’d miss.
“£100,” Cantona responded, before slotting
the ball into the corner with trademark ease,
having waited for Dmitri Kharine to dive. He
offered Wise double or quits before the
second one, then scored in identical fashion.
“He was a maverick, but he trained like
a beast every day – and by God, he did the
business, especially in the big games,” Bruce
tells FFT. “Cup finals, semi-finals... when you
needed a goal, Eric came up trumps. The
bigger the game, the more he enjoyed it.”FERGIE ON A HARLEY-DAVIDSON
Cantona became the first overseas star to win
the PFA Player of the Year Award in 1993–94,
although his summer was as eventful as ever.ACTING
Cantona first threw himself into
a different kind of drama career
during his ban for the
Selhurst Park kung-fu
kick: playing a rugby
player in French film Le
Bonheur Est Dans Le
Pré. He later became
a regular on Nike
adverts, hosting the
star-studded cage
tournament before
the 2002 World
Cup, as well as
pretending tobe a farmer for Kronenbourg.
Cantona even appeared in Oscar-
nominated movie Elizabeth and in
a Liam Gallagher music video (left),
but his most famous role was as
himself in Looking For Eric,
the 2009 Ken Loach film
that he also co-produced.BEACH FOOTBALL
Cantona became the captain
of France’s beach football
team and had taken
over as manager by
the time they
won theinaugural World Cup in Rio in 2005.
After 14 years with the team, he
resigned in 2011 following
relegation from the top division of
the Euro Beach Soccer League.NEW YORK COSMOS
In the same year that he departed
beach football Cantona headed for
the US to become the director of
football at a relaunched Cosmos,
citing an ambition to help them
become one of the world’s best
clubs. He was later sacked after
punching a photographer then
won damages for unfair dismissal.LIFE’S A BEACH
After leaving Manchester United, Cantona dipped his toes into a host of activities...ERIC
CAn TOn AFourFourTwo.com The Story of Man Utd 69