The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Cantona became famous very early on, and the troubles he caused were more famous than his football skills. But a bad reputation is also a reputation, and to become a bad boy famous in French football, you must have enough skills.

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Cantona's joining the Red Devils caused even more sensation in France than in England.

After English media reporters dug deep into Cantona's story, they were surprised to find that this guy was notorious in French football and was a well-known bad boy.

Despite his extraordinary strength, Cantona was actually exiled from the French football world. As a well-known troublemaker, a bad-tempered Frenchman, a troublemaker who constantly stirs up trouble, and a troublemaker who can't even stay in Ligue 1, Cantona is not the good young man that Platini said. There is a reason why he wandered to the English football world and was disliked by Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United. This guy stirs up trouble, is brave and aggressive, provokes all kinds of people, and despises all authority. Whether it is the club executives or teammates, whether it is opponents or referees, whether it is the national team coach or meritorious celebrities, they are all the targets of his attacks and abuses... In the French football world, Cantona was extremely famous.

Eric Cantona was born in Marseille, France on May 1966, 5. That summer, England won the World Cup. But some Cantona fans believe that England's victory is not as important as Eric Cantona's birth. Cantona showed different characteristics since he was a child. He has two extremes: extreme stillness and extreme movement. Cantona is keen on sports and playing. When he moves, he will be very involved and crazy, but he can also be silent for hours, concentrating on reading, meditating, or observing things around him. Cantona's father Albert is a psychiatric nurse and an amateur artist. Writing poetry, painting, and singing are Albert's interests, which have a great influence on the formation of Cantona's character. Cantona's mother is very kind and gentle, and his older brother and younger brother also have a deep relationship. After Cantona retired, his brother Jean-Marie and his younger brother Joel also set up a film company Canto Bros to shoot the film "Finding Eric" to record Cantona's colorful life.

In addition to playing football, Cantona also writes poetry and composes music. He once wrote a song specifically for his wife and released his own song album. Cantona is also good at painting and held an exhibition after retiring. In short, Cantona is such a person with rich artistic cells and sensitive personality. He needs recognition and full tolerance from outsiders.

Cantona is obsessed with football and showed extraordinary talent when he was a child. He joined the French youth football training program at the age of 8, joined the famous Auxerre team's youth training system in May 1981, and was selected for the French youth team the following year with his excellent talent. Cantona was only 5 years old when he joined Auxerre. Two years later, he played for the team in November 15 and made his debut in Ligue 1983.

Despite his early debut, Cantona did not score his first goal in Ligue 1985 until May 5. In Auxerre, Cantona was appreciated by coach Guy Roux. He often trained Cantona in person, carefully pointed out the key points of the movements, and earnestly required Cantona to complete various plans. As the legendary coach of Auxerre, Guy Roux was an extraordinary talent scout. He recognized Cantona's talent very much and believed that Cantona was a genius that would never be seen again.

In the summer of 1985, Cantona suddenly asked the team to loan him to the second-tier team Matic, which shocked everyone. Why would he go to a second-tier team?

It turns out Cantona did it for love.

Cantona met his teammate Ferrier's sister Isabelle in this year. Cantona was so surprised by her beauty that he immediately started to pursue her passionately. Whenever Cantona had time, he would take a long-distance train to the south of France and warmly invite Isabelle to visit the Auxerre team. He never said enough sweet words. Cantona's relationship with his girlfriend was passionate but short-lived. Isabelle broke up because they were apart for a long time. Cantona felt that the sky was falling. In order to be with his girlfriend, Cantona asked to play football in Matic, and Guy Roux finally agreed. Matic was the last in the second division at that time, and was lucky to stay in the league after getting strong reinforcements.

Cantona's days with Matic were extremely sweet. With his beloved girl by his side, Cantona was full of energy and performed well, leading the team to victory after victory. Cantona's efforts also won Isabel's heart, and the two finally made their love bear fruit.

In the summer of 1986, Cantona, who had just married, returned to Auxerre and performed even better. Cantona was selected for the French national team and the French youth team at the same time, becoming a talented star in French football. In August 1987, Cantona played for France for the first time against West Germany. He dribbled past the opponent and charged fiercely on the field, helping the French team score a goal. Although the team eventually lost 8-1, Cantona's performance had shocked the audience. Later, Cantona, as the core striker, led the French youth team under 1 to win the European Youth Championship in 2!

Cantona's fame grew, and in June 1988 he joined French Ligue 6 giants Marseille for a record fee of £230 million.

Cantona has extraordinary talent in football, but also has an unruly temper. In the past few years when he played for Auxerre, Cantona has caused a lot of trouble. His hot temper made him always make trouble, not only challenging opponents, but even challenging referees. At that time, he was lucky to meet the great coach Guy Roux, a fatherly coach who gave Cantona unlimited love and tolerance.

When he arrived at Marseille, it was completely different. The largest club in Ligue 1 had a strict hierarchy and extremely complicated relationships. Cantona was not a starter. Even when he occasionally played, his teammates ignored him and would not pass the ball to him even if he was in a better position. Cantona was very depressed. He could not agree with the unspoken rules in the team. The conflict between Cantona and the team quickly broke out. He cursed at the assistant coach in training, fought with his teammates, and even took out his anger on the national team.

Cantona was also isolated in the national team. This time he went directly to the head coach to complain. The head coach of the French team at that time was the famous Michel. He suggested that Cantona return to football and keep a low profile. The young Cantona could not accept Michel's mediation and directly cursed Michel as "a pile of shit"!

The French football world was in an uproar. Although Cantona immediately realized his mistake, took the initiative to admit his mistake to Michel and apologized publicly, the French team immediately announced the expulsion of this guy. After returning to the club, Cantona was substituted in the middle of a friendly match against Torpedo Moscow in January 1989. Cantona could not understand the coach's arrangement, threw his jersey on the ground in anger, pushed away the coach who came up to explain, and left the court directly.

The Marseille coach was furious and immediately banned him, and threatened that as long as he was in Marseille, Cantona would never play again.

Cantona was soon loaned to Bordeaux by Marseille, and then moved to Montpellier in July 1989. After suffering continuous humiliation and unfair treatment, Cantona broke out in the cold eyes of everyone, and he led Montpellier to win the French Cup in the 7-1989 season.

Cantona enjoyed great prestige at Montpellier, but he soon got into trouble again because of an argument with a teammate. After the two sides exchanged insults, Cantona directly beat up the other party. Montpellier banned Cantona for ten days and fined him one month's salary.

In the summer of 1990, Marseille fired the old coach and brought in Cantona again. Cantona had a rare highlight moment and played very well after the start of the new season, but in October Cantona had to leave the court due to a knee ligament injury. When he returned from injury, he lost his starting position. Although Marseille won the French Ligue 10 championship, Cantona still felt lost.

Cantona resolutely left Nimes in the summer of 1991, where he became the captain and the core of the team. After the start of the season, Nimes encountered a black whistle. Cantona could not accept this evil behavior and directly threw the football at the opponent. After being shown a red card by the referee, Cantona was furious and rushed over to beat him up. He was finally persuaded to stop. In order to protect the referee, the French Football Association banned Cantona for one month on the grounds of "infringing the referee". Cantona publicly cursed the officials of the Football Association as "idiots" and "rubbish" at the press conference. The result is conceivable. The French Football Association was furious and doubled the punishment on Cantona.

The rebellious Cantona was unwilling to accept such slander. In December 1991, he announced the termination of his contract with the club and retired.

The news of Cantona's retirement shocked the entire French football world. Many French legends and players tried to keep him, unwilling to see this absolute genius ruined. His mentor Guy Roux understood him deeply and called him to persuade him immediately, and suggested that he try another league. Platini, then the head coach of the French team, also admired Cantona very much. He helped contact the British Sheffield Wednesday team and suggested that Cantona go to England to try out the new environment first, and said that the door of the French team was still open to Cantona.

Cantona was like this. He was a young talent, but also a very difficult person to deal with, a real bad boy. Cantona not only did not obey his mentor who had been training him since the youth team, but also did not obey famous coaches such as Michel and Platini. He did his own thing and was unruly. In the end, he could not even stay in France, so he had to come to the UK in a desperate situation to look for new opportunities.

Cantona had nowhere to go in French football, so he finally did not refuse the kindness of Platini, Houllier and others and set foot on the land of England.

Cantona arrived at Sheffield Wednesday and conflicts soon broke out. He did not get a contract and the team's welcome to him was casual. Cantona was only given the opportunity to train with the team, which was not even a trial. The Sheffield Wednesday coach actually admired Cantona's talent, but he also knew that he was unable to control this guy. Cantona was very dissatisfied, but before he exploded, Sheffield Wednesday coach Trew made a positive recommendation to Leeds United. It happened that at that time, Leeds United's main striker Lee Chapman was injured, and coach Wilkinson was looking for a striker everywhere, so the two sides quickly negotiated a short-term contract.

On January 1992, 1, the Frenchman officially arrived in British football.

On February 1992, 2, Cantona came on as a substitute in the match against Alderford, but he didn't have much playing time. At this time, Leeds United's main striker Chapman miraculously recovered, and Cantona was once again relegated to the sidelines and became a substitute. In many league games, Cantona only got a little garbage time, played for a few minutes and then left the field, without scoring any goals or any good performance.

It was not until February 2th, when Leeds United played against Luton, that Cantona finally got his chance to start. He was very active in the game, constantly moving forward, constantly trying to dribble and shoot. Finally, in the 29th minute of the game, he got rid of the defense in front of the goal and easily shot into the dead corner to help the team win.

Cantona's outstanding performance conquered the fans, but still failed to shake Chapman's starting position. In the subsequent games, Cantona still had occasional opportunities to play, but most of the time he was a substitute.

In this season, Cantona won the league championship with Leeds United.

Leeds United officially renewed Cantona's contract in the summer of 1992. He then performed amazingly in the Charity Shield match before the new Premier League season, scoring a hat trick against Liverpool and immediately became a favorite of the fans.

Despite this, Cantona's character was still isolated and excluded in Leeds United. Cantona could not agree with his teammates' view that "drinking and having fun are the interests of playing football", and he did not get along well with coach Wilkinson. He often argued with the coaching team about formations and tactics. Some English local players wanted to bully Cantona during training, but they were severely punished by Cantona.

Cantona also felt bored and disappointed. The football played by Leeds United was not what he wanted, and the atmosphere in the locker room made him even more uncomfortable.

Cantona later talked about the reason for leaving Leeds United in an interview, "I have a bad relationship with coach Wilkinson. He and I have different views on football. I like direct confrontation and positive football. I pursue sharp attacks and effectively control the situation, but Wilkinson doesn't want that. The team plays old-fashioned football: slow, dogmatic, rigid... I don't want to stay there."

Cantona fiercely criticized Wilkinson: "It's like being with a woman, moody, sometimes you can feel love, sometimes you don't get it, I think that way is wrong. You want to give more and hope to get something in return, but you don't get any response. I don't want to be with a nagging woman on the football field. That's not football, that's dirty politics."