Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (; ; born 24 May 1966) is a French former professional footballer and current actor.<!-- Keep most notable occupations here, see MOS:ROLEBIO. --> In his football career, Cantona was a physically strong and technically skilful player with both creative and goalscoring ability. Mostly utilised as a deep-lying forward, he was also capable of playing as a centre-forward, as a dedicated striker, as an attacking midfielder, or as a central midfielder. Regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players in 2004.
Cantona played for Auxerre, Martigues, Marseille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nîmes and Leeds United, before ending his career at Manchester United, with whom he won four Premier League titles in five years, including two League and FA Cup Doubles. He wore the iconic number 7 shirt at Manchester United and was known for turning up his collar. He is affectionately nicknamed "King Eric" by Manchester United fans. Cantona won league championships in England and France in seven of his last eight full seasons as a professional, and at least one trophy in eight of his last nine. At international level, he played for the France national team and scored 20 goals in 45 matches. He appeared at UEFA Euro 1992 and, in preparation for Euro 96, was appointed captain in 1994.
In 2003, Cantona was voted as Manchester United's greatest-ever player by Inside United magazine. He was an inaugural inductee into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002. At the Premier League 10 Seasons Awards in 2003, he was voted the Overseas Player of the Decade. Cantona was inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame in 2021. Charismatic and outspoken, Cantona's achievements in football were set against fallings out with coaches and team-mates, and a poor disciplinary record throughout his career, including a 1995 conviction for an assault on an abusive spectator, for which he received a two-week prison sentence, reduced to community service on appeal, and an eight-month suspension from footballpreventing him from participating at Euro 96.
In 1997, Cantona unexpectedly announced his retirement from football just before his 31st birthday. He then moved into a career in cinema, including roles in the films Elizabeth (1998), French Film (2008) and The Killer (2024). In 2010, he debuted as a stage actor in Face au Paradis, a play directed by his wife, Rachida Brakni. Cantona took an interest in the sport of beach soccer; as player-manager of the France national beach soccer team, he won the 2005 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
Early life
Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona was born in Marseille on 24 May 1966, the son of dressmaker Éléonore Raurich, and nurse and painter Albert Cantona. His mother was Spanish and came from Barcelona, while his paternal grandfather was Italian and had emigrated to Marseille from Ozieri in Sardinia. While fighting the armies of General Franco in the Spanish Civil War in 1938, Cantona's maternal grandfather, Pere Raurich, suffered a serious injury to his liver and had to retreat to France for medical treatment with his wife. They stayed in Saint-Priest, Ardèche, before settling in Marseille.
Club career
Early career
Cantona began his football career with SO Caillolais, his local team and one that had produced such talent as Roger Jouve and had players such as Jean Tigana and Christophe Galtier within its ranks. Originally, Cantona began to follow in his father's footsteps and often played as a goalkeeper, but his creative instincts began to take over and he would play up front more and more often. In his time with SO Caillolais, Cantona played in more than 200 matches.
Auxerre
Cantona's first professional club was Auxerre, where he spent two years in the youth team before making his debut on 5 November 1983, in a 4–0 league victory over Nancy. In 1984 his footballing career was put on hold as he carried out his national service. On 14 May 1985, Cantona scored his first goal for Auxerre, scoring an open goal to put his team 2–0 up against Rouen in an important match to put pressure on AS Monaco. On the final matchday of the season, Auxerre played Strasbourg, with Auxerre needing one point to secure qualification for the following seasons' UEFA Cup; 1–0 down at half-time, Cantona scored the equalising goal from 25 yards out and showed his talent to a wider audience for the first time. After his discharge he was loaned out to Martigues and shortly after he transferred to Marseille for a French record fee (FF22m). Cantona had grown up as a Marseille fan.
Marseille
In January 1989 during a friendly game against Torpedo Moscow he kicked the ball at the crowd, then ripped off and threw away his shirt after being substituted. His club responded by banning him for a month. Just a few months earlier, he had been banned from international matches for one year after insulting the national coach Henri Michel on TV.
Loans to Bordeaux and Montpellier
Having struggled to settle at Marseille, Cantona moved to Bordeaux on a six-month loan and then to Montpellier on a year-long loan. At Montpellier, he was involved in a fight with team-mate Jean-Claude Lemoult and threw his boots in Lemoult's face. The incident led to six players demanding that Cantona be sacked, but with the support of team-mates such as Laurent Blanc and Carlos Valderrama, the club retained his services, although they banned him from the ground for ten days. Cantona was instrumental as the team went on to win the French Cup and his form persuaded Marseille to take him back.
Return to Marseille, transfer to Nîmes
Back at Marseille, Cantona initially played well under coach Gerard Gili and his successor Franz Beckenbauer. However, the Marseille chairman Bernard Tapie was not satisfied with the results and replaced Beckenbauer with Raymond Goethals; Cantona was continually at odds with Goethals and Tapie and, despite helping the team win the French Division 1 title, he was transferred to Nîmes the following season, for a fee of 10 million francs, signing a three-year contract.
In December 1991, during a match for Nîmes, he threw the ball at the referee, having been angered by one of his decisions. He was summoned to a disciplinary hearing by the French Football Federation and was banned for one month. Cantona responded by walking up to members of the hearing committee in turn and calling each of them an "idiot". His ban was increased to two months and Cantona subsequently announced his retirement from football on 16 December 1991. The France national team coach, Michel Platini, was a fan of Cantona and persuaded him to make a comeback. On the advice of Gérard Houllier as well as his psychoanalyst, he moved to England to restart his career: "He [my psychoanalyst] advised me not to sign for Marseille and recommended that I should go to England."
Departure and move to England
On 6 November 1991, after Liverpool's 3–0 victory over Auxerre in a UEFA Cup second round, second leg tie at Anfield, Liverpool manager Graeme Souness was met by Frenchman Michel Platini at the end of the game, who told him that Cantona was available for sale to Liverpool. Souness thanked Platini, but declined the offer, citing dressing room harmony as his reason. After being turned down by Liverpool, Cantona was given a trial at Sheffield Wednesday when Wednesday manager Trevor Francis was approached by Platini and Francis' former agent, Dennis Roach. In a 2012 interview Francis explained that he had agreed to take Cantona on as a favour to Roach and Platini, who he knew from his time playing in Italy, and that it was intended as an opportunity for Cantona to put himself in the "shop window": Wednesday had only recently been promoted back to the top flight, with most of the squad still being on Second Division-level wages, and the club could not afford to sign him. Cantona spent two days with Wednesday, training and playing in an indoor tournament at Sheffield Arena.
Leeds United
1991–92 season
Cantona's arrival at Leeds United was announced in January 1992. Leeds would pay £100,000 to Nîmes to take him on loan until 15 April, after which they would have to pay another £900,000 to sign him permanently. Cantona made his debut for Leeds in a 2–0 loss at Oldham Athletic on 8 February 1992. At Leeds, he was part of the team that won the final Football League First Division title before it was replaced by the Premier League as the top division in English football. He made 15 appearances, and despite only scoring three goals, he contributed to their title success, primarily with assists for leading goalscorer Lee Chapman. Cantona scored his first goal for Leeds in a 2–0 win at home to Luton Town on 29 February and set up the other goal for Chapman. Having played little football in the six weeks before signing for Leeds, Cantona struggled to find a place in an established line-up, with manager Howard Wilkinson preferring to put him on against tiring defences. Against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on 7 March, Cantona came off the bench to set up a goal for Gary McAllister, securing a win that moved Leeds two points ahead of Manchester United, who had a game in hand, in the title race. Cantona was deployed as a part of a front three, along with Chapman and Rod Wallace, in a 5–1 thrashing of Wimbledon at Elland Road on 14 March, scoring Leeds' fourth goal of the game.
Leeds' title ambitions survived the difficult tests of Arsenal at Highbury (a 1–1 draw with Cantona denied a late winner by David Seaman) and West Ham (a 0–0 draw with Cantona being denied a first-half goal through a dubious offside decision); however, they lost 4–0 to Manchester City on 4 April at Maine Road, allowing Manchester United to take pole position in the title race again. Against Chelsea on 11 April, Cantona came on for Wallace with 20 minutes to go and Leeds leading 1–0; he then set up Chapman's 20th goal of the season before rounding off the scoring with a lob over Chelsea defender Paul Elliott. Two days later, Wilkinson announced that Leeds intended to complete Cantona's transfer from Nîmes for £900,000. Cantona was paid a generous £7,000 a week, a huge cost in an era without television or European football revenue. Starting with that Chelsea match, Leeds went unbeaten in their final five games, securing the league title on the penultimate weekend with a 3–2 win over Sheffield United after Manchester United had lost to Liverpool.
1992–93 season
In the 1992 FA Charity Shield that August, with Leeds missing several key players, Cantona scored a hat-trick in a 4–3 victory over Liverpool, the first hat-trick in the Charity Shield since Tommy Taylor in 1957. Cantona's hat-trick places him among the small group of players to have scored three or more goals in games at Wembley Stadium. Leeds started their title defence with a 2–1 win over Wimbledon on 15 August; Cantona started alongside Chapman up front, but had a quiet game, although he did pick up his first yellow card in English football, after 17 games. After Cantona scored his first league goal of the season in a 4–1 defeat at Middlesbrough and followed it up with another hat-trick, the first in the newly created Premier League in a 5–0 win over Tottenham on 25 August. Cantona then flew to Paris to join the France national team for a friendly against Brazil on the very same day, due to newly installed manager Gérard Houllier's desire to have the whole squad present for his first match.
Leeds slipped towards mid-table with a pair of 2–2 draws despite excellent performances by Cantona, drawing two excellent saves from a young David James against fellow title challengers Liverpool on 29 August and scoring a brace against Oldham Athletic three days later. Leeds then fell 2–0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford on 6 September, with Cantona coming off the bench and nearly scoring with a bicycle kick. Leeds' first foray into the European Cup since 1974–75 started poorly with a 3–0 defeat at Stuttgart on 16 September; Cantona, struggling with a hamstring injury, had a pass intercepted that led to Stuttgart's opening goal, exacerbating a growing rift with manager Wilkinson. Cantona missed the next two games, a 1–1 draw at Southampton and a 4–1 win over Scunthorpe United in the League Cup, through injury but returned immediately to help Leeds win their first league game in six, a 2–0 victory over Everton on 26 September.
Four days later, Leeds faced Stuttgart in the return leg of the European Cup. Dubbed the 'Mission Impossible', Cantona and Gordon Strachan combined to set up Gary Speed, who scored with a left-footed volley. Andreas Buck equalised for Stuttgart in the 34th minute, the away goal meaning that Leeds needed another four to progress. McAllister scored a penalty just before half-time to make it 2–1 to Leeds before Cantona's looping shot in the 66th minute was deflected into his own net by Günther Schäfer. Chapman's header at the near post made it 4–1 in the 78th minute but Stuttgart remained firm and denied Leeds the decisive fifth goal. However, Leeds received a stroke of luck when it emerged after the match that Stuttgart's coach, Christoph Daum, had fielded four 'foreign' players, one more than allowed. Leeds were awarded a 3–0 victory by UEFA and a play-off match was ordered at the neutral Camp Nou in Barcelona on 9 October.
An exhausted Leeds then stumbled to a 4–2 defeat at Ipswich Town, with Cantona's form dipping through fatigue and injury. He had a poor game as Leeds won the play-off against Stuttgart 2–1. A return to national duty then saw Cantona and Jean-Pierre Papin score in a 2–0 victory over Austria. He brought his revived form back to England, helping in a 3–1 victory against Sheffield United in October. This game would, however, be Cantona's last win while with Leeds.
Leeds were drawn against Rangers in the European Cup, a tie billed as 'The Battle of Britain' by the press. Despite McAllister's first-minute goal, Cantona and Leeds struggled and fell 2–1 amid a hostile Ibrox crowd. Cantona walked straight to the dressing room after being substituted, which was interpreted by Wilkinson as disrespectful to the other players. Leeds also lost the return leg 2–1, Rangers scoring through Mark Hateley and Ally McCoist, before Cantona scored a late consolation goal. In between the two games, Cantona was an unused substitute when Leeds travelled to Queens Park Rangers as Wilkinson, favouring a more direct approach, found no room for him. Leeds lost 2–1, with Cantona leaving for France after being granted leave on the morning of the match. Wallace was preferred to start over Cantona in a fighting 2–2 draw at home to Coventry City. Managing just one win in four, Leeds' title defence had imploded in October, just as Arsenal's had in the previous season.
Cantona did however start in the 4–0 defeat at Manchester City on 7 November, but put in a hapless performance along with the rest of the team. Cantona was then guilty of "two dreadful misses" as Watford knocked them out of the League Cup on 10 November. Despite suffering along with his team, Wilkinson, rather than Cantona, was held responsible, after having to reinvigorate a side with a number of ageing stars. Despite Cantona scoring (with his shoulder) for France against Finland four days later, Wilkinson kept him out of the team, citing an unconvincing excuse of a "groin strain", as Leeds pulled off an improbable but resounding 3–0 win over Arsenal, ending the Gunners' six-game winning run. Furious at being dropped, Cantona refused to report for training and faxed a transfer request to the club on 24 November, stating a preference to join Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal.
Manchester United
Transfer from Leeds United
The news of Cantona's impending transfer from Leeds to fierce rivals Manchester United was met with hostility from Leeds fans. The transfer was, however, seen as a good piece of business by most football pundits, removing a turbulent player from the team.
Cantona left Leeds for Manchester United for £1 million on 26 November 1992. Leeds chairman Bill Fotherby had telephoned Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards to enquire about the availability of Denis Irwin. Edwards was in a meeting with manager Alex Ferguson at the time and both agreed that Irwin was not for sale. Ferguson had identified that his team was in need of a striker, having failed to secure the services of Alan Shearer that summer, and after new signing Dion Dublin was injured a few games into the season, had failed in his attempts to sign David Hirst, Matt Le Tissier and Brian Deane. Ferguson instructed his chairman to ask whether Cantona was for sale. Fotherby had to consult with Wilkinson, but within a few days the deal was complete.
1992–93 season
Cantona had arrived too late to register to play in United's 1–0 win at Arsenal on 28 November, but was in the crowd at Highbury as his new team secured a vital win. He made his first appearance for the club on 1 December 1992 in a friendly match against Benfica in Lisbon to mark Eusébio's 50th birthday, wearing the number 10 shirt. He made his competitive debut as a second-half substitute against Manchester City at Old Trafford on 6 December. United won 2–1, though Cantona made little impact that day.