Eric Cantona at Man Utd: the kick, the ban, the comeback

Eric Cantona at Man Utd won four Premier League titles in five seasons, including two doubles, and scored 82 goals in less than five years at the club, but the version of him that did all of it only existed because of the kung-fu kick. Cantona's story turns on 25 January 1995 at Selhurst Park, the night he was sent off and launched a kick into the crowd, and the nine-month ban that followed changed his career more than any title before it. The man who returned in October 1995 was different, and the two seasons he played after the ban produced the double, the captaincy and the crown of the club's greatest ever.

That is the claim this article is built on, and it runs against the obvious reading. A nine-month ban and a criminal conviction usually end a career, not make one. Cantona had already been the league's best player before the kick, PFA Player of the Year in 1993/94, yet his comeback season delivered the lowest raw goal return of his United peak, 14 league goals in 30 appearances, and it was the most valuable season he ever played. The kick did not interrupt the Cantona legend at Man Utd. It created it.

Eric Cantona at Man Utd: from Leeds outcast to title winner

Cantona arrived at Old Trafford from Leeds United in November 1992 for £1.2 million, a transfer that looked like a favour to a rival in crisis. Leeds had won the old First Division title in 1991/92 with Cantona contributing mostly assists, and the start of the first Premier League season had gone badly for him: after being dropped he had faxed a transfer request stating a preference to join Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal. Ferguson had tried to sign Alan Shearer that summer and lost out to Blackburn, watched £1 million signing Dion Dublin break a leg, and failed on David Hirst, Matt Le Tissier and Brian Deane, so the bargain fell into his lap. By 26 November the deal was done. United only lost twice in the league after his arrival and finished the 1992/93 season ten points clear at the top, champions for the first time in 26 years, on 84 points. The title made Cantona the first player to win consecutive English top-division titles with different clubs, his third successive domestic league title with a different club.

His impact is easy to understate because of what came later. He had already scored the first hat-trick in Premier League history for Leeds, in a 5-0 win over Tottenham on 25 August 1992, and a hat-trick in the 1992 Charity Shield against Liverpool, the first since Tommy Taylor in 1957. At United he was the piece the team had been missing, the deep-lying forward who turned the title chasers into champions. Manchester United have never paid a more important £1.2 million.

The pre-ban peak: 1993/94 and the first double

The 1993/94 season showed what Cantona was before the incident defined him. United retained the Premier League, topping the table for virtually the entire season and finishing eight points ahead of runners-up Blackburn on 92 points, and Cantona's two penalties helped United to a 4-0 win over Chelsea in the 1994 FA Cup Final. He was voted PFA Player of the Year, and it was the season he took the number 7 shirt. A third successive title felt routine until January 1995.

The 1994/95 season was the one that got away. On 22 January 1995 Cantona scored the winner as United beat Blackburn 1-0 at Old Trafford, his last match of any value that campaign. He had scored 12 league goals in 21 matches up to that point, and United never replaced his output that spring. After the ban, United lost at both Everton and Liverpool and slipped to costly draws at Tottenham Hotspur, Leeds United and Chelsea, and the title went to Blackburn by a single point, 88 to 89. The full story of that race is in our guide to the Blackburn 1995 title, and every champion's points total sits in the Premier League title winners list.

The Selhurst Park kick, the ban and the silence

On 25 January 1995, in a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace, Cantona was sent off by referee Alan Wilkie for kicking Palace defender Richard Shaw. As he walked towards the tunnel, he launched a kung-fu style kick into the crowd, directed at Palace supporter Matthew Simmons, who had run down eleven rows of stairs to shout abuse at him, and followed with a series of punches. The club fined him £20,000 and confirmed he would not play for the first team for the rest of the season; the FA extended the ban and fined him a further £10,000, FIFA confirmed the suspension as worldwide, and he was stripped of the France captaincy and never played for France again. He admitted the criminal charge of assault on 23 March, was given a two-week prison sentence, and on appeal was ordered to serve 120 hours of community service, spent coaching children at United's training ground.

The aftermath mattered as much as the ban. Ferguson persuaded him to stay, the club ignored the threat of a transfer request that August, and Cantona's only public statement was the press conference that made him a folk hero rather than a villain. "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much." The kick and the silence turned a red-card offender into a cult figure, and the absence did the rest: supporters spent nine months imagining what the team had lost, so the return carried a weight no ordinary comeback could have.

The comeback season that made the legend

The return was not instant. In his comeback game against arch rivals Liverpool on 1 October 1995, Cantona set up a goal for Nicky Butt two minutes in and then scored a penalty to secure a point in a 2-2 home draw. By 24 December the gap to league leaders Newcastle had increased to ten points, and eventually to twelve. Then the run began: Cantona scored the winning goal at West Ham, scored twice in a 4-2 win over Wimbledon on his first visit to Selhurst Park since the ban, and hit a personal scoring run of six consecutive league matches. Victory over Arsenal on 20 March 1996, the only goal a 25-yard half-volley, took United past Newcastle for good. United won their third league title in four years, having suffered just one defeat after the turn of the year, and Cantona finished as the club's top scorer with 14 league goals from 30 appearances.

The 1996 FA Cup Final finished the story. With captain Steve Bruce injured, Cantona wore the armband and volleyed the only goal of the game in the 86th minute to beat Liverpool 1-0, making United the first club to win the double twice and Cantona the first FA Cup-winning captain from outside the British Isles. The 14-goal season is the statistical heart of the argument: his lowest return as a United regular, yet it produced the double, the captain's medal and the defining goal.

Captain, the fourth title and the sudden end

Cantona was named United's captain for 1996/97 following Bruce's departure to Birmingham City, and United retained the league on 75 points, the lowest total by any Premier League champion in the record, noting the 42-game seasons of the early nineties are not directly comparable. It was his fourth league title in five years with the team, and his sixth in seven years counting Marseille and Leeds. Then, on 18 May 1997, shortly after the season ended, he announced his retirement at 30, in a press conference at Old Trafford at which he was not present. He left with 64 league goals from 143 league appearances, 13 in domestic cup competitions and five in the Champions League, 82 goals in less than five years. His final tallies are modest next to the division's great scorers, which is the point.

The honours followed him out. He was an inaugural inductee into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002, voted Overseas Player of the Decade at the Premier League 10 Seasons Awards in 2003, and that same year Inside United magazine voted him Manchester United's greatest-ever player. Across his career he won league championships in England and France in seven of his last eight full seasons as a professional. The dynasty he joined is covered in full in our guide to Ferguson's Manchester United; this article is about why the ban matters to the story.

FAQ

Why did Eric Cantona join Manchester United?

Leeds sold him in November 1992 for £1.2 million after he handed in a transfer request. Ferguson had failed to sign a striker all summer, and the deal was completed by 26 November. United lost only twice in the league after his arrival and won the title by ten points.

How long was Eric Cantona banned for the kung-fu kick?

Nine months. He was sent off at Crystal Palace on 25 January 1995 and the FA ban ran until the end of September 1995, with FIFA confirming it worldwide. He was also fined £20,000 by United and £10,000 by the FA, and served 120 hours of community service.

How many goals did Cantona score for Manchester United?

64 league goals in 143 league appearances, plus 13 in domestic cups and five in the Champions League: 82 goals in total in less than five years. He scored 14 league goals in 30 appearances in the comeback season of 1995/96.

How many titles did Cantona win at Manchester United?

Four Premier League titles in five seasons: 1992/93, 1993/94, 1995/96 and 1996/97, including the doubles of 1993/94 and 1995/96. With Marseille and Leeds he won six league titles in seven years.

Why did Cantona retire at 30?

He announced his retirement on 18 May 1997, shortly after the 1996/97 title, in a press conference at Old Trafford at which he was not present. Explaining it in 2003, he said he no longer had the passion for the discipline the game required.

Key takeaways

• Eric Cantona at Man Utd won four Premier League titles in five seasons and two doubles, with 82 goals in less than five years, after arriving from Leeds for £1.2 million in November 1992.
• The kung-fu kick on 25 January 1995 at Selhurst Park drew a nine-month ban that ran until the end of September 1995, a £20,000 club fine, a £10,000 FA fine and 120 hours of community service.
• The comeback season of 1995/96 was his lowest-scoring at United, 14 league goals in 30 appearances, yet it delivered the title from twelve points behind, the double and the 86th-minute FA Cup Final winner.
• As captain in 1996/97 he won a fourth title in five seasons on 75 points, the lowest winning total of any Premier League champion.
• He retired on 18 May 1997 at 30 and was later voted the club's greatest-ever player by Inside United, the Overseas Player of the Decade, and an inaugural Hall of Fame inductee.

Conclusion

Eric Cantona at Man Utd lasted five seasons and changed the club's idea of itself. Four titles in five seasons, two doubles and 82 goals tell only part of it: the version of him who lifted the 1996 FA Cup as a foreign captain, who dragged United from twelve points behind Newcastle and retired at the top on his own terms was created by the nine-month ban, not interrupted by it. The kick at Selhurst Park was supposed to end him, and instead it gave Old Trafford the defining comeback of the Premier League era. That is why the ban belongs at the centre of the Cantona story: the greatest player United ever voted for, by their own magazine, only became him after the fall.