Eric Cantona, Manchester United player

Eric Cantona was hugely influential at Manchester United. Four times in five seasons he helped the club win the Premiership. He was idolised by the supporters, despite his disciplinary failings and, for his final season, he was club captain.

Cantona was born in 1966 in Paris, and lived - and played - in France until he was twenty-five. The French part of his career was stormy and unsettled. After first playing for Auxerre in 1983, Cantona played for six different clubs. He signed for Auxerre, Marseille and Nimes, and had spells on-loan at Martigues, Bordeaux and Montpellier. Wherever he went he was recognised as a talented footballer, but also a difficult character. He fell-out with chairmen, managers, team-mates and referees and his indiscipline led to numerous periods of suspension. So frustrated did Cantona become that he decided to retire from football in 1991, aged just twenty-five. France coach, Michel Platini, persuaded him to try again - in England.

In 1992 Cantona signed for Leeds United, following a period on trial at Sheffield Wednesday. The Leeds supporters greeted him with ‘Ooh Aah Cantona’ and, in his first season, he helped them win the League Championship. Though recognising his talents, Leeds United manager, Howard Wilkinson, was still concerned about Cantona’s instability. In November 1992, Wilkinson made a transfer enquiry about Denis Irwin. The reply indicated that Irwin wasn’t for sale, but then enquired about Cantona. To Alex Ferguson’s surprise, Wilkinson was happy to sell him, and to sell him for just over £1m.

Cantona joined Manchester United half-way through the 1992-1993 season. His impact was immediate. He scored nine goals during the remainder of that season and helped Manchester United to be league champions, for the first time in twenty-six years. In 1993-1994 Manchester United won the double, then in 1995-1996 they won the double again. In 1996-1997 they won a fourth league championship in five seasons. For a good part of the season when there wasn’t success, 1994-1995, Cantona was suspended. After being sent-off in a game against Crystal Palace, he attacked a Palace supporter while leaving the field. He was banned from all football for eight months, as well as having to do one hundred and twenty hours of community service. This brought him even more media attention, which prompted him on one occasion to utter the infamous and inscrutable line “when the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea”. Cantona became club captain for the 1996-1997 season, at the end of which he announced his retirement. He was only thirty-one, but felt it was time to finish. His departure was as unexpected as his arrival.

Few Manchester United footballers have been as influential as Eric Cantona. He added confidence and class to a good side and made it great. He had limitless self-belief and his absence of nerves calmed those around him. He took to the Old Trafford stage as if it had been made for him, playing there with poise and authority. Cantona was a strong, athletic footballer, who was two-footed and good in the air. He had great vision and awareness, making goals for others as well as scoring them himself. It was said of him that he really only wanted to score ‘beautiful goals’. There was certainly something artistic about his play, as well as a touch of genius. He was capable of creating time and space for himself and others. He worked hard at his skills, instilling into the emerging generation at Old Trafford the need for relentless practice. In all of this, Cantona was superbly managed by Alex Ferguson. Ferguson appreciated Cantona’s talents, but also his love for Manchester United and his determination to succeed. He got the best out of Cantona, allowing him certain privileges that others would never have been allowed.

Cantona was the players’ Player of the Year in 1994 and the writers’ Player of the Year in 1996. He represented France, but not as often as he might have done. He played for Manchester United in European competition, but never with quite the same effect as he had at home. Cantona was a complex character: imaginative, temperamental and undeniably different. To those who greatly enjoyed the Cantona-era, Eric was ‘the king’.