Convention and Orthodoxy were not routes taken by Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona. Even from outset, as all geniuses do, he walked the tightrope and frequently strayed into the domain of madness.
At the height of his fame, and even to an extent the present day, the bad boy image of Eric Cantona has proven to be both extremely marketable and lucrative. There is however nothing misleading in the personality of this born maverick. Cantona’s character is an authentic one. The Collar up, chest out, wasn’t for self promotion or to market his own brand. It was his natural reaction. None of this was curated or rehearsed. He was and is a bona fide nonconformist.
Long before English football rocked to Cantona’s tune, in his native France, he had developed a penchant for the sublime but also a reputation of being impossible to handle.
His breakthrough came at AJ Auxerre under the tutelage of legendary manager Guy Roux. Roux managed the club for over 40 years and was renowned for developing young homegrown talent. He was the first manager in a long line who struggled greatly with weighing up the risks and rewards of Eric Cantona. Cantona’s goals would help Auxerre to their highest ever league finish and qualification for the UEFA Cup but this was after a loan spell at FC Martigues where he served the first of many bans, this one for fighting with a fan. Roux’s patience would be pushed regularly to the very limit. For every goal and piece of breathtaking skill, there was an outburst to match or outdo.
Following the season of his life where he scored 17 goals and won the Rookie of The Year award, boyhood club Marseilles decided to chance their arm with the enigmatic Cantona, forking out a then French record transfer fee. Cantona’s time at the Stade Veledrome would be action packed, but perhaps not quite in the way initially envisaged.
It took Marseilles only 6 months to decide they needed to send Eric Cantona out on loan.
Prior to heading on a temporary move to Bordeaux, he had thrown his shirt at manager Gerard Gili after being substituted in a charity match and was also sent home from national team duty with France after lamping a team mate in a dispute whilst clearing snow from a frozen pitch. He then proceeded to go on national television and declare manager Henri Michel a “sack of shit”. As English rock band the Libertines would pen in their 2004 hit Can’t Stand Me Now – “Cornered the boy kicked out at the world, but the world kicked back a lot fucking harder” – Cantona was given a one year ban from the national side. He was 22 years old.
Despite the misdemeanors and indiscretions mounting up, Cantona’s brief spell at Bordeaux was a fruitful one which saw him score 6 goals in 12 matches. Regardless, there would be no redemption at Marseilles. Cantona’s antics had driven Chairman Bernard Tapie to distraction. The pair were like oil and water. Another loan move beckoned, this time to Montpellier.
During his year long stay, controversy and brilliance would again walk hand in hand. An altercation with teammate Jean-Claude Lemoult turned physical and Cantona threw his boots straight into the face of the midfielder. Six players called for Cantona’s stay to be culled but club officials decided against this action, instead banning him from the training ground for ten days. His return to the field of play would ultimately be a triumphant one – going on to play a starring role as Montpellier lifted the French national cup.
The Summer of 1990 saw Cantona return to Marseilles where he would regularly turn up for training on Harley Davidson motorbike – further infuriating Chairman Tapie. Game time was hard to come by in a side jam packed with stars such as Chris Waddle and Jean-Pierre Papin. After a frustrating season, on the first day of July 1991, Nimes would offer €1.5m and Bernard Tapie bit their hand clean off.
As was becoming a theme, controversy didn’t take long to reacquaint itself with Eric Cantona in his new surroundings. In December of that year, he took umbrage with a refereeing decision then proceeded to pick up the ball and throw it with force at the ref. Unsurprisingly, thereafter a disciplinary hearing ensued which saw the French Football Federation hand Cantona a one month ban. This ban was then extended by a further month after Cantona responded by going nose to nose with each official on the committee, labeling them all “idiots”.
Equilibrium and rationale went out the window, if indeed they had ever been inside in the first place. Cantona announced his retirement from football with immediate effect and offered to pay up the full remainder of his Nimes contract – a decision that would’ve bankrupt him. National team manager and legend Michel Platini, who was a huge fan of Cantona, intervened alongside Gerrard Houllier and together they managed to convince Cantona that this wasn’t so much the end of the road but merely a fork in it.
With the help of Platini and Houllier, Cantona would embark on an adventure across the English Channel and into the unknown. It would change his life forever.
Calum Maltman
