King Eric left Old Trafford when he was just 30.
Eric Cantona, speaking to James O’Brien on JOE’s Unfiltered podcast, has elaborated on his reasons for walking away from Manchester United in 1997.
Given the fact that so many players and factors go into the makeup of a successful football team, it’s something of an oversimplification to say that one footballer can transform the fate of an entire club. Then again, football history is filled with players that changed the fortunes of certain clubs. Look at the impact that Johann Cryuff and Ronaldinho had after they joined Barcelona or Thierry Henry’s impact at Arsenal.
Some players just elevate those around them and in doing so, they create history. Cantona was one of those players.
"He disappeared, disappeared like a weak man" https://t.co/eLDKA8Vwgq
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) November 30, 2017
After leaving Leeds to join Manchester United in November 1992, the Frenchman would win four Premier League titles and two league and FA Cup Doubles at Old Trafford. ‘King Eric’ was also voted as Manchester United’s greatest ever player by Inside United magazine.
In Sir Alex Ferguson’s third book, he defined Cantona’s greatness by saying:
“I don’t mean to demean or criticise any of the great or very good footballers who played for me during my 26-year career at United, but there were only four who were world class: Cantona, Giggs, Ronaldo and Scholes.”
The 1996/97 season was Cantona’s final campaign, and after a poor performance against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League semi-final, the Frenchman knew that his heart wasn’t in it. United lost both legs 1-0 and crashed out of the tournament to the eventual winners, suffering another frustrating season in Europe.
The day after the second-leg at Old Trafford, Cantona told Ferguson that he was retiring at the end of the season. And despite his manager’s best efforts and the 12-months that remained on his contract, he was true to his word.
As a player, the forward was instinctive, gifted and passionate, and his decision to leave Old Trafford was shaped by these exact qualities that defined his time there.
“I was very passionate about the game and I always said that when I lost that passion, I would retire. Of course, nobody believed me but when I lost that passion, I retired. No regrets,” Cantona said on Unfiltered.
The former Marseille forward claims that he could have continued to play for another decade, but he chose not to.
“Yeah, even ten years. But you can have five more years if you still have the passion and that just went like a light-switch. I waited and said to myself, ‘It will come back, it will come back, it will come back’ but it never came back so I retired. It’s normal, it’s just honest. I admire a player that can play at the same club for 20 years like a Ryan Giggs, a Maldini or a Xavi. They are unbelievable. You see after 20 years that they have the same passion for the game, but I’m not that type of person. I get bored very quickly.”
https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_UK/status/862574748500230145
For a generation of Manchester United fans, Cantona’s decision to leave the club is still one of the most seismic and memorable moments of their years supporting the club. In Cantona’s view, he felt that staying at Old Trafford wouldn’t have been fair to the Manchester United players and fans because his performance levels would have dropped.
“I didn’t feel the passion for the game. To play at the highest level, you have to be very careful about what you eat, what you drink, what time you go to bed, what you think. You have to be concentrated on the game. Secondly, to do that, you need the passion. If you lose a bit of passion, you lose a bit of something else and that means you can’t play at the highest level. I play football to have the feeling that I’m improving something every time. In a game, what I can learn from the game? In a match, if I score one goal and miss another chance, I’m thinking about the one I missed. If I missed a pass, I’m thinking about why I missed it. I always looked at how can I improve it for the next time? But when you miss the passion, you realise that you will not play at the highest level. Passion helps you improve yourself, but when you lose that, you can’t improve yourself anymore and I loved that feeling that I was improving while playing.”
Almost 20 years since King Eric left Old Trafford, there’s one thing that’s undeniable. He left United on his own terms, which is exactly how he played football.
You can watch the exclusive interview here.
