Top 10 Unbelievable Facts about Eric Cantona

Photo by Georges Biard from Wikimedia

Top 10 Unbelievable Facts about Eric Cantona

Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona is a French actor, director, producer, and former professional footballer. He is one of the greatest footballers of his generation.

He was born in Marseille on 24 May 1966, and he is the son of Éléonore Raurich and Albert Cantona. His father was a painter and his mother was a dressmaker.

 Cantona is well known for his footballing career which spanned 17 years In his heydays, he played for Auxerre, Martigues, Marseille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nîmes, and Leeds United before ending his career at Manchester United in 1997.

He also played and managed beach football for the French national team, before joining New york cosmos as the director of soccer.

Here are the top 10 unbelievable facts about Erick Cantona.

1. Eric Cantona is of Mixed Ethnicity

Photo by Ardfern from Wikimedia

Eric Cantona is a French national of white ethnicity with Italian, French, as well as Spanish-Catalan roots. 

His mother was Spanish and came from Barcelona, while his paternal grandfather was Italian and had emigrated to Marseille from Sardinia, the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.

2. Eric Cantona started his Career as a Teenager

Cantona started playing football as a young boy, enjoying street soccer with his age mates on the street of his hometown Caillols.

In 1980, he started his football career with a local SO Caillolais at the age of 14. He began playing as a goalkeeper emulating his father who played in that position years before.

He later started to play up front as a forward and discovered that was his natural position.  For one year he stayed with SO Caillolais, he played in more than 100 matches for the youth team.

3. Eric Cantona Signed his First Football Professional Contact in 1986

Photo by Sémhur from Wikimedia

After starting his football career with SO Caillolais, Cantona joined the Auxelle football club in 1982. He spent his first two years at the club on the youth team.

Cantona made his senior debut in a league victory over Nancy in 1983 and scored his first open play goal for Auxelle in a league win over Rouen in 1985.

 He signed his first professional contract with the Auxelle football team in 1986.

4. Eric Cantona Suspended his Career to serve in the National Service

In 1984 Eric Cantona’s footballing career was put on hold for one year as he carried out his national service duty.

All French male citizens joined a Mandatory military training at the age of 18.

France suspended peacetime military conscription in 1996, and the government formally announced the end of compulsory military service in 2001.

5. Eric Cantona Physically Attacked a Football Fan

In the autumn of 1992, Cantona signed for Leeds and went on to become a legend at the club, winning four league titles and two F. A cup in just five years. But his stay at the club also saw the most controversial moment of his career.

Cantona attacked an abusive spectator in front of the crowd in an English premier league match.  he was banned from playing football for several months after the incident.

6. Eric Cantona Supported England in the 2006 World Cup

 France failed to qualify for the 1994 world cup in the USA  after Eric Cantona was named the captain of the French national football team.

Cantona attacked an abusive spectator in front of the crowd in an English premier league match.  he was banned from playing football for several months after the incident.

By the time he completed his suspension; he had lost his role as the team’s playmaker to Zinedine Zidane and was never selected in the national team squad again.

Following his bitterness for exclusion from the team in 1995, Cantona supported his football-adopted country England at Euro 2004 and the world cup 2006.

7. Manchester United Fans Nicknamed him “ King Eric” 

photo by James Boyes from Wikimedia

Eric Cantona made his debut at Manchester United on the 6th December 1992 against Manchester City in a 2-1 victory. Cantona slotted into the team seamlessly and formed a formidable partnership up front with Mark Hughes.

Manchester United lost just two league matches following his arrival and finally brought the League title back to Old Trafford after a 26-year wait.

United was even better the following season, as the team secured their first-ever league and FA Cup Double.

Manchester United fans named him “The King” by fans, as he top-scored 26 goals in all competitions for the team that season.

8 His Brother Introduced him to the Beach Soccer 

After unexpectedly retiring from professional football in 1997, Cantona became captain of the French national beach soccer team. He gained interest in the sport through his brother Joel, who was already part of the team.

He found considerable success as he managed and played in the French team which won their first European title at the 2004 Euro Beach Soccer League and the inaugural FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in 2005.

Cantona was key to the growth of beach soccer during its early years. He stayed with the France beach soccer team for 14 years before he resigned from the team in 2011.

9.  Eric Cantona’s Second Wife is an Actress

Photo by ERIO TAC FRANCE from Wikimedia

Eric Cantona married his first wife Isabelle Ferrer in 1987. The couple had two children together before they ended their marriage in 2003.

In 2007  he married a French film director and an actress Rachida Brakni,

, and together they have two children.

10. Eric Cantona acted as French Ambassador in the English film Elizabeth

Photo by Ardfern from Wikimedia

Erick Cantona became actively involved in movie acting soon after retiring from his long successful footballing career.

In 1998 he accepted a role as a French ambassador in the English film Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is a 1998 British biographical period drama film directed by Shekhar Kapur and written by Michael Hirst, The film is based on the early years of Elizabeth’s reign, where she is elevated to the throne after the death of her half-sister Mary I, who had imprisoned her