What came first for Eric Cantona, the ability or the accompanying persona?
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 during the week, the former Manchester United player discussed the ramifications of his "seagulls" speech twenty-two years earlier and why he chose to overlook this series of events in a book the Frenchman has released.
Having escaped a potential prison sentence for directing a kick toward an abusive Crystal Palace fan, the surreal nature of Cantona's response instantly "became the subject of public debate":
When seagulls follow the trawler it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.
There were no platitudes, no apologies, no glimpse whatsoever of a person whose actions could be understood via categories usually addressed when discussing footballers.
In his column for today's Sunday Times, David Walsh recounted an experience he had had with Eric Cantona in Paris years before.
After a period in which "he talked and I listened", Walsh "went against every journalistic instinct and ... asked him to sign a shirt for a 16-year-old lad who idolised [Cantona]".
Cantona obliged Walsh's request, but with one caveat:
Before I sign the shirt you must tell me about this boy. What he is like? Does he play in a team? What is his position? What are his strengths? His weaknesses? What is his character?
A wonderfully strange request from a man who seemed to value character, and an occasionally odd idea of honour above all else, Walsh informed Cantona that this 16-year-old was, for all intents and purposes, a bit like Cantona himself:
Talented but sometimes indisciplined. He was likeable but occasionally difficult. Always very passionate about football. He did play in a team, same position as Cantona himself and often he would get on the wrong side of the referee. Yellow cards, he had many of those.
When Cantona had got a picture of the boy in his mind, his message was simple, effective and, given that Cantona abandoned football himself at 31, true to himself:
If you ever lose the passion you must stop.
As it always has been with Cantona, no matter how straightforward the message, the temptation to assume some hidden meaning beyond his words is ever-present.
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