When The Athletic meets Eric Cantona, he tells us that the last book he finished was the 2004 novel Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Guene. Charting a year in the life of a French-Moroccan teenager called Doria, the coming-of-age story sees her deal with love and loneliness as she grows up in the Livry-Gargan housing projects on the outskirts of Paris. It’s a very Cantona recommendation; he tells us that he last laughed aloud while reading the book but that he “cries so many times” when going about his weekly adventures.
“I can tell you a good story and cry,” says the 58-year-old. “My brothers are the same. Our parents are the same. But we are strong,” he adds, flexing a fist. “Very strong, but we love emotions. It’s good to have emotions.”
It’s been a busy 2024 for the Manchester United legend. In April, he was on tour with his musical project Cantona Sings Eric, performing at venues in the UK and Ireland. This summer, he appeared in more than one advert over Euro 2024 broadcasts. He’s been on The Rest Is Football podcast with Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer. And cinema-goers may have noticed him in the trailer for John Woo’s newest film.
When The Athletic meets up with him, in a side room of Wapping Power Station, he is promoting Ford’s new Capri. “She can read the future, OK?” he says of the car. “Can you read the future?” Later in the afternoon, he flicks through a copy of The Great Philosophers by Stephen Law while Ford’s design reps discuss the car at length.
“I want to observe the world,” he tells The Athletic. “This is the motto of my life. I love to observe the world. I love to observe people. And create my own world. That’s it. I like this world just to inspire me in my own world.”
Cantona’s world can be best explained as an ongoing journey of self-discovery. He often talks of the need for freedom, be it when he was a footballer, or making music, film or art. In a 2018 piece with The Players’ Tribune, he said, “Football gives meaning to your life,” and, “Your life, your history, your essence, also gives meaning to your football.” Six years later, little has changed. To Cantona, football serves as a meeting point for many people, each imbuing the game with their own stories, dreams and desires.
Cantona performing his show at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London last year (Tim P Whitby/Getty Images)
“I once made a documentary on football in immigration,” he says, referring to Football and Immigration, a 100 Years of Common History. “It was more than 10 years ago and told the story of 100 years of history in France. Those different ways of immigration.
“Who helped French football? Gave the best French players? Their origin was Polish in 1920s, and then Michel Platini with the Italian immigration. Then Zinedine Zidane from north Africa. Now you look at the team and see the other French colonies.”
Cantona, who has previously spoken of his maternal grandfathers fleeing Spain at the end of the Civil War in 1939, thinks deeply about the points where football and immigration intersect. French by birth, he can trace his family history to Spain and Italy (his paternal great-grandparents moved from Sardinia in 1911). To him, when you learn about football, you learn a great deal about a place and the people who live there.
“Because it is so popular, you play with people coming from all over the world,” he says. “And it’s a perfect example, for I am a bit of a utopian.”
We are speaking on the day England face the Netherlands in the Euro 2024 semi-final, and before the controversy sparked by some Argentina players singing a racist song about the French national team, so The Athletic asks whether the tournament has been a good example of people coming together.
“I saw the France game yesterday (the 2-1 defeat to Spain) and I saw a lot of white people,” he says. “I’ve seen in the stand, like I saw in Brazil when the World Cup was there (in 2014), I see a lot of white people.
“It’s important that everyone can go watch the game because it’s a popular sport. And everybody should be able to go and watch. The institutions should know it’s important to have all kinds of people come to the game. Maybe not free, but accessible to everyone.”
The conversation turns to Manchester United and the club’s changes since Sir Jim Ratcliffe became a minority shareholder. Trawlers Ltd, Ratcliffe’s holding company that now owns a 27.7 per cent stake at United, derives its name from Cantona’s famous press conference in 1995.
“I inspire a lot of people, and I’ve been inspired by a lot of people,” says Cantona about the reference. When we ask if the two have been in contact, he offers a “not really” before describing the billionaire as “a legend in his business”.
Cantona, ever the showman, especially on the pitch for Manchester United (Anton Want/Allsport/Getty Images)
“They work today on the foundations of the club. Things we cannot really see, but it’s important to work on a foundation when you build the house. Or if you feel that the house moving a bit, you restructure the foundation.
“Sometimes we minimise it, the importance of chairmen. We speak about players, we speak about managers… but look at Chelsea since Roman Abramovich left; the club is not the same. It’s very important to have somebody in charge of the club.
“The chairman of the club is very important. With Jim Ratcliffe, he’s the right person to build this foundation. Manchester in the next few years, we come back to their best.”
Among the changes at the club, INEOS has been cutting costs. In early July, interim chief executive Jean-Claude Blanc announced the club will make 250 staff members redundant. How does Cantona feel about a company with a name inspired by his actions making so many people redundant?
“Yeah, but sometimes you have to do it,” he answers. “Maybe it was too much people. One thing that was good about Covid was (it) meant people could work in the house. But now, in some businesses, the concern is the business is in London, and someone works in Madrid on Zoom, with their kids around, everything. It can be good sometimes, but I think and I believe in human beings.”
Another change was that United staff were told to return to the office from June 1, with Ratcliffe citing how, at a different company owned by INEOS, they had noted reduced email productivity from staff while working at home on Fridays. Those inside the room when Blanc delivered news of the redundancies said there was a solemn mood among staff. Improving morale at United will take time. Cantona believes more face-to-face communication can help.
“I believe in energy moving between people and they want to take that back at Manchester United, which is very important,” he says. “When you meet the people, you see someone, you meet another woman and you say, ‘Hello, good morning’. It’s like family. I remember my time (at the club), we say hello to everybody. It was a big family, and the energy was all between us. Not only the players, not only the manager, not only the chairman, all the people who work at the club.
“Things changed since the Glazers arrived. Since Sir Alex Ferguson left. And it’s important to take that back. To have this energy. To have this feeling of, ‘We are part of the family, and we are here, I can speak to you, look in your eyes, I can shake your hand, looking in your eyes, I can feel you, I can get a sense of why you don’t really feel good, or why you did this or why you feel great today’. It’s important. It’s very important.”
Cantona wants Manchester United to return to their past glories under Ferguson (Shaun Botterill/ALLSPORT/Getty Images)
The conversation moves on again, from football business off the pitch, to footballers on it. Cantona highlights Lamine Yamal as one of the more impressive players at Euro 2024.
“I love the way Spain play, and it’s good to have this kind of player, because you never know what he will do,” he says. “It surprises everybody every time. He has great vision, great technique, and he takes the right decision. I love it. Sometimes I watch a game just to watch a player.”
When we ask if he has a favourite United player in the current squad, he takes a moment to pause and consider the situation. “They have some good, some great players, of course. But no one that I would say is like Yamal.
“I love the players who surprise me,” he adds, before pausing again. “Sometimes Bruno Fernandes surprises me. Which is good.”
As we wrap up, we ask if he has any advice for budding footballers looking to express themselves on the pitch. “I would say that they have to enjoy football, to have passion for the game. And really love the game. The ball is a friend, and it’s so wonderful to have this relationship to the ball. The ball is not an enemy. Far too many players feel that the ball is a kind of enemy.
“But when you see Lamine Yamal, you really feel that the ball is a friend. Even a brother.”
(Top photo: Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images)
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