Manchester United legend Eric Cantona will be remembered forever by Red Devils supporters, for his incredible impact on the pitch.
For many, Eric Cantona is remembered for his famed kung-fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan, which saw him receive a lengthy suspension.
Cantona is fondly remembered by former Premier League midfielder Paul Merson for that incident, because he says he did him a big career favour.
Speaking to Football’s Greatest with Jeff Stelling, Merson explained: “When I got done with the drink and the drugs and I come out of the treatment I was still banned from playing and I was still getting pelters from the papers, ‘ban him for life, what he was a disgrace’, I remember sitting in bed one night watching Sportsnight.
“I was watching it and he did the kung-fu kick and I thought ‘thank God for that’ and I was never mentioned again.”
Merson praises Eric Cantona impact
There was far more to Eric Cantona than his many off-pitch run-ins, and Merson says the Frenchman drw his respect from his ability and the way he carried himself.
He said: “I loved his aura, the collar’s up, he’d walk on the pitch, his back’s straight. Especially for someone like me who was very shy, who didn’t always think I should be there, I always used to think whoosh look at him. He knew he was good.
“At Man United he made players around him better, there’s no doubt about that.”
Eric Cantona scores big goals
Eric Cantona scored 82 goals in total for the club, and Merson insists it was a case of quality over quantity when assessing his total impact.
He said: “A lot of his goals were big goals, he wasn’t getting a hat-trick, getting a fourth, fifth and sixth goal in a 6-0 win. He was getting the first goal in games, winning 1-0.
“He scored big goals. They are the goals I look at. I look at the first goal in the game, the equaliser, or the goal that takes you in front. They are the goals that count for me. I can’t speak highly enough of him.”
Cantona’s FA Cup final record speaks to that. He scored the penalty to put Manchester United in front against Chelsea in 1994, and then another, and then in 1996 he scored the winner against Liverpool at Wembley to seal the Double Double.
He was the biggest star of his era, and the biggest sadness of the incident at Selhurst Park in 1995, was that the subsequent suspension robbed Manchester United fans of time watching him, with Cantona going on to cut his career abruptly short in the summer of 1997, at just 30.
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