Cantona interview: Dec 94

the contrary, when we were little kids we all wanted to play football: why? We wanted to play football to experience these great matches. We wanted to play in front of 100,000 people. Why else would we want to play football? When kids are mucking around they say to each other ‘shoot some penalties’ and they’re kids, there’s no pressure on them. And what do they think to themselves? They think, ‘Right this is it, it’s the last minute of the World Cup final.’ What they tell themselves is that it all hangs in the balance, that if they miss this one, they lose everything they’ve got. It’s pressure that makes the game beautiful.”

A lot has been said about Cantona “the poet and artist”. The press seem amazed if a footballer has other interests apart from clubs, models and crashing cars. The Cantona “artist” phenomenon may be down to the difference between Gallic and Anglo-Saxon cultures. A case of Asterix versus Britons. What the British pundits and press don’t understand is that, as with most Frenchmen, Monsieur Cantona’s life is art. Therefore he believes football is art. Winning is one thing. But what he really aspires to is winning beautifully. This is a man who watches films assiduously, keeps abreast of high fashion, reads widely (Marlon Brando’s autobiography at the time of the interview) and even paints. But it's on the pitch that Eric is himself the supreme artist. He refers to football as “the finest of the arts”, as “the noblest of all characters in my life, worthy of great respect."

Performing on the pitch is more than a source of pride for Cantona. It is his lifeblood. “Contrary to what most people believe, the more you know about your game and the more you know about yourself with regard to your game, the more you can set yourself free. Living life to the full is not about sloppy preparation and wasting time. What I’m saying