“Knowing Christ is the best thing that has ever happened to me, although winning the US Open was a pretty good second.”
Cantona
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Philippe Auclair, Pan, 2009
This is an outstanding biography. The author’s conclusion is: “He achieved a great deal. He failed sometimes… he was naive, flawed, arrogant, self-serving, violent - but he was also the most generous of men for what he gave for the sake of giving”.
The book says that at Manchester United Eric made it a point of honour to sign autographs for everyone present, explaining “You have to do it here; it's not like in France. I sometimes refuse to sign autographs in France”. I have observed this myself.
The book suggests that one reason why Cantona had such a good rapport with the Man U fans “was his understanding of what represented an important game - he always seemed to play well against Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Leeds United, the clubs the fans hated”.
On his failure to excel in the Champions League, the author writes: “That a player blessed with such strength of character and such talent could prove an almost complete failure in European competitions is a mystery for which I can only offer a few clues but no definite explanation. One such clue is that Eric had felt that his club wasn't prepared to spend the money needed to purchase the proven match winners that could help him lift united to success in Europe”.
Cantona said on many occasions that retirement is a form of death. There is one quote in the book: “When you're a footballer, you do something very public. You do it because it is a passion and you feel alive when you're doing it. Then you quit and it's like a death. A lot of footballers are afraid and that's why they go on TV to speak about the game… it helps them to feel alive again, to deal with their fears about this death”.
All the managers who got the best out of Cantona did so by conveying to him that they trusted him. He needed proof of the manager's trust which meant being given a place in the starting lineup no matter what.
Alex Ferguson described him as “the perfect player at the perfect club at the perfect moment. Eric starts attacks out of nothing”