The other day I was watching Eric Cantona being interviewed on Football Focus. On the surface, he was there to talk about his involvement with The New York Cosmos, but in fact it was the perfect opportunity to get to grips with the most cerebal of footballers.
The stuff he was coming up with was pure gold! Cantona claimed his proudest moment was ‘when I kicked the hooligan’, a statement which has certainly rattled a few cages. Eric argued that he did it for fans everywhere, who were sick of being represented by dunken loud-mouth yobs.
The whole thing got me thinking. What are the best Cantona quotes? There must be a whole load of them! I decided to write a piece on the Transfer Tavern about them, and see what reaction I got. Unfortunately, a quick search on the internet revealed about 200 million people have had the same idea! So I thought we’d play a little game. Here’s 5 quotes that sound as if they could have come from Cantona….but can you guess which is the real Cantona quote??
If the tiger ever stands still, the elephant will crush him with his mighty tusks. But the tiger will not stand still. He will leap upon the back of the elephant, tearing huge chunks from his side, and then he will leap back into the dark jungle. And slowly the elephant will bleed to death. – Is this a Cantona classic, or is it just what Tony Pulis says to his Stoke players at half-time??
Du sublime au ridicule il n’y a que’un pas (From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step.) – This sounds like a pretty good summarisation of Cantona’s career. But did he say it??
The revolution is really easy to do these days. What’s the system? The system is built on the power of the banks. So it must be destroyed through the banks. A real revolution. – Is this Cantona sticking up for the little guy, or is it a piece of 1960’s French anarchist graffitti?
Je pense donce je suis. (I think, therefore I am.) – Most footballers can’t even think. So do they exist at all? Whoa….heavy man.
The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well – Well said Eric…or is it??
Well, have you guessed it??? I could have gone for the seagulls quote, but you’d have got that one straight away!!
I will tweet the answer, so you’ll have to follow me on Twitter @petermagpie
