In November 1992, Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United signed Eric Cantona from Leeds United in a £1 million deal. It proved to be one of the best signings the club has ever made.
Cantona enjoyed an extraordinary spell at the Red Devils. He was so good, in fact, that he was given the nickname 'King Eric' by fans of the club. In total, the Frenchman scored 77 goals in 171 appearances at the club, winning four Premier League titles and two FA Cups in five years.
But all good things must come to an end and Cantona shocked everyone by deciding to retire at the end of the 1996/1997 season. He was just 30 years old and still at the peak of his powers.
Eric Cantona's statement on his shock retirement from football
He released a statement confirming his decision to retire. It read, per Manchester United's official website: "I have played professional football for 13 years, which is a long time. I now wish to do other things. I always planned to retire when I was at the top and, at Manchester United, I have reached the pinnacle of my career.
“In the last four-and-a-half years, I have enjoyed my best football and had a wonderful time. I have had a marvellous relationship with the manager, coach, staff and players, and, not least, the fans. I wish Manchester United even more success in the future."
While Sir Alex Ferguson would no doubt have been devastated by the news, he followed it up with a beautifully written letter to his former player a few months later. It wasn't the usual manager to player chat. There was no 'Thank you for your service. Happy retirement.' Instead, it's a candid insight into the incredible relationship between Fergie and Cantona. Take a look at the letter below:
Sir Alex Ferguson's full letter to Eric Cantona
Ferguson wrote: "I felt that I should write to you as a mark of respect and esteem in which I hold you.
"When we started training, I kept waiting for you to turn up as normal but I think that was in hope not realism and I knew in your eyes when we met at Mottram your time at Manchester United was over. Although, I still feel you should have taken both your Father’s and my advice and taken a holiday before making such a major decision.
"One thing, I would like you to remember is to remain active and fit. I always rememeber when I finished at 32 and I started management, I was more concerned about organising training and the coaching of players that I forgot about my own fitness and then when I realised about six years later what was happening I started to train again to recapture my fitness and it was murder, so you do need to keep up your fitness.
"I am sure you have been keeping an eye on our results and as you can see we are doing quite well as you know we have signed Teddy Sheringham to replace you but at the moment he is finding it difficult to find the space he got at Tottenham and is playing deep so we have some adjusting to do. Players sometimes don’t realise how difficult it is to play at our level as every game is a Cup Final for our opponents so I just hope he can do it for us.
"Our pre-season wasn’t too bad. The Far East tour was better than expected and our games against Inter Milan were very good. The Charity Shield wasn’t a great performance but we were better than Chelsea and deserved to win, even though it went to penalties.
"I still feel as we discussed at the end of the season that a top class striker is what is needed and that is always going to be the problem at our club as the financial restraints will always stop us getting the best because of our wage structure and it is such a pity because when you are at the top you should buy the best to stop the others getting to you. If I was younger, I suppose I would look at it differently, but from a personal point of view, I have not won the European Cup and it does get to me at times. However, I just have to carry on and not put up a mental barrier and I have always had that belief and trust in my players and wish to continue to do so. I keep hoping that I will discover a young Cantona! It is a dream!
"As I close this letter, I would like to hope that we will have a chat, a drink, or a meal together soon. I know the club has written to you about the forthcoming dinner and I hope you will manage it, but that is not the most important thing, for me it is to remind you how good a player you were for Manchester United and how grateful I am for the service you gave me. I will never forget that and hope you won’t either.
"You are always welcome here and if you just pop in unexpectedly for a cup of tea, no fanfare, just for a chat as friends, that would mean more to me than anything. Eric you know where I am if you need me and now that you are no longer one of my players, I hope that you know you have a friend.
"Good luck and God bless. Yours sincerely, Alex Ferguson."
Beautiful. Just beautiful. Ferguson was an incredible man manager and the letter only emphasises that point.
Why did Eric Cantona retire?
Cantona expanded on his decision to retire in 2017. “I was very passionate about the game and I always said that when I lost that passion, I would retire. Of course, nobody believed me but when I lost that passion, I retired. No regrets,” Cantona said on Unfiltered.
The Frenchman added that he could have gone on playing football for another decade. He said: “Yeah, even ten years. But you can have five more years if you still have the passion and that just went like a light-switch. I waited and said to myself, ‘It will come back, it will come back, it will come back’ but it never came back so I retired.
"It’s normal, it’s just honest. I admire a player that can play at the same club for 20 years like a Ryan Giggs, a [Paolo] Maldini or a Xavi. They are unbelievable. You see after 20 years that they have the same passion for the game, but I’m not that type of person. I get bored very quickly.”
He continued: “I didn’t feel the passion for the game. To play at the highest level, you have to be very careful about what you eat, what you drink, what time you go to bed, what you think. You have to be concentrated on the game.
"Secondly, to do that, you need the passion. If you lose a bit of passion, you lose a bit of something else and that means you can’t play at the highest level. I play football to have the feeling that I’m improving something every time. In a game, what I can learn from the game? In a match, if I score one goal and miss another chance, I’m thinking about the one I missed. If I missed a pass, I’m thinking about why I missed it.
"I always looked at how can I improve it for the next time. But when you miss the passion, you realise that you will not play at the highest level. Passion helps you improve yourself, but when you lose that, you can’t improve yourself anymore and I loved that feeling that I was improving while playing.”
What has Eric Cantona been up to since retiring?
Cantona became captain and manager of the France national beach soccer team shortly after quitting United. He continued playing until 2006 and stepped down as manager five years later.
He was named as Director of Soccer at New York Cosmos on 18 January 2011. However, his stint at the club was brief as he was fired by the club a year later after a confrontation with a photographer.
The Frenchman became an actor after hanging up his boots. His first role was as a rugby player called Lionel in 'Le bonheur est dans le pré'. He has also appeared in numerous other films including Elizabeth, Looking for Eric and The Salvation. Cantona also starred in the music video for Liam Gallagher's single "Once".
While Cantona launched his music career this year. He released his debut single ‘The Friends We Lost' in June 2023. He will perform at Manchester, London and Dublin at the end of October.