Eric Cantona

A true legend this man was for Man United

I would guess the majority of people either love him or hate him - I don't love him, but I do think he was an exceptional talent and charasmatic individual who left his mark on the English game (in a positive sense, not meaning 'that kick')

He was a genius and a joy to watch - okay, he also had a fiery Gallic temporament, but that was part of his make up and helped make him the talent he was.
I enjoyed and would look out for his rare interviews in the mid 90's, he came out with some unusual insights, but it was interesting to see what made the man tick.

So Viva Eric, in my opinion.

Made in Leeds he was.

so what is this thread actually about?

a french criminal opens a sh*tty towns football stadium?

great.

the man himself is no better than Barton ie kicking, stamping and shoving his way through his saturday afternoons. because he had a bit of talent people conveniently forget this solid fact.

anybody got a pair of rose tinted glasses i could borrow?

Throw Di Canio in also eh Steely?
Cantona is a United legend - and always will be!

once again, i ask you the question...

is pushing a grown man with the power of a 7 year old girl the equivalent of kung fu kicking somebody after a 10 metre run up or intentionally stamping on a blokes chest with while he is laying on the floor in your honest unbiased opinion?

Cantona recieved a criminal record and community service - could well have been jail if it were on the street. the stamping too, could well have resulted in jail if it were on the street.

what was Di Canio's criminal offence?

i await your answer

He placed his hands on the match official - simple as that. It was out of order and you know it. If any other player had done that, then I doubt you would have the same opinion on the incident.

Regarding Cantona, I am in no way trying to excuse his actions - however regardless he will always be a legend to United fans.

As for stamping - there is another legend of the English game who did a similar thing, along with using his elbows on multiple occasions - Alan Shearer!

im talking about national law, not a sports legislation. whether the bloke is a referee or a fan it adds or takes away nothing in terms of context. the force with which di canio used is widely seen in almost every game on a match official. the referee did that highly embarrassing stumble which escalated it. but all in all it was not even a shove. calling it a push is exaggerating. it was wrong to lay his hands on him of course. but he is a grown man.

let me push you with that force and tell the police, see what they say.

alternatively run up and kick me with football boots on and/or stamp on my chest with football boots on and lets see what the police then have to say.

there is no similarity whatsoever. because the bloke was a ref it does not make it a crime! thats completely laughable.

cantona is and will be a hero to Man United fans. thats the fickle nature of football supporters. it does not make it right and this thread is not exactly worthy of production. what exactly is the topic? some tiny french backwater stadium is named after him? so what?

if we discuss the man himself we see what kind of a man he is. he was a great footballer but a dreadful violent person.

the same people who condemn hooliganism and barton's kind lick the arse of this thug who has a criminal record for violent assault.

Cantona was sentenced to two weeks in prison which was reduced to 120 hours community service for the attack.

In 1987 he punched his own team's goalkeeper at Auxerre, leaving him with a black eye. He was also suspended by Marseille for kicking a ball into the crowd and throwing his shirt at the referee after being substituted.

this is a man with a history of violence. yet it all gets brushed under the carpet because he was good with a football.

who is talking aboput Shearer? who cares about him? this is about Cantona. stop trying to deflect the scumminess of the man by trying to drag other people down to his level. its desperate.

Extracted from the Observer 2004

Cantona had just been sent off, Matthew Simmons came down 11 rows to tell him to 'F*ck off back to France, you French motherfucker', or 'French b*stard' depending on whose version you accept. Cantona crossed a line no player had crossed before in English football: he attacked a fan.

There are those, particularly in south London, who believe Cantona got off lightly, that the Manchester United PR machine made racism an issue when it was not. John Barnes was never part of the Old Trafford spin machine. Here's his view in 2004: 'It's very ironic that it took a white Frenchman to bring home to the nation the issue of racism in football.'

'Just imagine if a black player had done that in the 1970s - someone like Clyde Best when they were chucking bananas at him. There would have been a riot. But it would have changed the way people behaved, some good would have come of it. Maybe that's what happened with Cantona.'

Shearer did not do a similar thing.

The kung-fu kick has become an iconic sporting moment. Observer readers voted it the thirty-first greatest sporting moment of all time, ahead of England's 4-1 win over Holland in Euro 96 and Jesse Owens' four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Far from destroying his career, the assault has cemented Cantona's legendary status as a persecuted, passionate genius. When asked in a recent interview what his best moment at United was, Cantona replied: 'My best moment? I have had a lot of good moments but the one I prefer is when I kicked the hooligan at Crystal Palace.'

How would people react if Joey Barton later said that his best moment was beating his ex teammate up. It is funny how the same people can judge Barton but look past it when Cantona does something. And calling it an iconic sporting moment is laughable. He was a great player but this doesn't mean his negatves should be overlooked.

There is an enormous difference between Barton and Eric 'The King' Cantona.........intellectually they are from different planets. Barton is a thug.......Cantona a persecuted genius who reacted to a cowardly racist attack. He was the victim.......sent off for reacting to a foul......racially abused.....and then receiving an 8 month ban from football for standing up to the violent abuser.

People don't listen to whether Barton reacted to a verbal attack (doesn't mean what he did was fair though). You can talk about how he is a 'genius' all you want but that doesn't mean what he did should be overlooked. Calling him the victom is being biased even by your standards. I'm not saying that Barton is on the same level as what Cantona did but you are wrong to overlook what he did.

I know he is the coach of France beach soccer but i don't know if he still plays.

It's so easy to say that isn't it JJ.......call me biased....and that is enough for you to ignore my arguments. Cantona WAS a victim of a racist violent thug that came up against someone who was prepared to stand up to him. Barton is a violent thug who continued to punch someone who was on the ground unconscious.

Barton is a violent thug.

Eric Cantona is a victim who defended himself.

if i ignored your arguments because you are a tad biased i wouldn't reply to the things you say. So what would happen if on the first day of the season someone from the Man United end shouted something at Barton and he went and kicked them in the head. What would you feel about that and what would the rest of the football world feel about it?

Even Barton can't be that stupid.....he's on a suspended sentence and no doubt will have to undergo anger management counselling as part of the probation process.

What if you were in France and someone came running at you, just after you had been emotionally upset by someone else and felt that you were a victim, this idiot was in yr face shouting 'f*ck off you English motherf*cker, f*ck off back to England. How would you react JJ. Would you defend yourself? Would you be wrong for doing so? Would you consider yourself to be a criminal...a thug???

I wouldn't really find 'f*ck off you English motherf*cker, f*ck off back to England' much of an insult, i have had much worse said to me and was not a grown man. If this person said this to me while i was playing football i would do my best to ignore him (while playing football i had many threats, it can sometimes be seen as a tactic of other teams). However, if he said this to me on a night where i had plenty to drink, i would kick the sh!t out of him (like the barton case, sort of).
I'm not saying the fan is not in the wrong but it was not professional of Cantona to act like he did. I have never called Cantona a thug or a criminal, all i did was question why you were able to look past what he did. You are perfectly entitled to do this though.

the fact you have replied with zero input from yourself shows that you have no argument to the facts i present to you regarding his violent past.

the ambiguity of the article and the clear lack of facts in what actually happened shows the kind of contempt this piece of journalism should be held in. its merely the article writers opinion.

its not ironic in the slightest either. white people are just as likely to be victims of 'racism' if that is what it is.

a worthless article adding nothing to any arguement.