Eric Cantona Quotes

You can change your wife, your politics, your religion, but never, never can you change your favourite football team.

When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.

When I think football, I think Manchester United. I still support United and always will. I will die with them in my heart.

You may find another Beckham or Ronaldo, but never ever will you find another Sir Alex Ferguson.

I don't play against a particular team. I play against the idea of losing

My best moment? I have a lot of good moments but the one I prefer is when I kicked the hooligan.

I'm so proud the fans still sing my name, but I fear tomorrow they will stop. I fear it because I love it. And everything you love, you fear you will lose.

Sometimes you surprise the goalkeeper and sometimes the goalkeeper surprises you. In my career, I tried to do more of the first than the second.

An artist in my eyes, is someone who can lighten up a dark room. I have never and will never find difference between the pass from Pele to Carlos Alberto in the final of the World Cup in 1970 and the poetry of the young Rimbaud, who stretches cords from steeple to steeple and garlands from window to window. There is in each of these human manifestations an expression of beauty which touches us and gives us a feeling of eternity.

The ball is like a woman, she loves to be caressed.

I play with passion and fire. I have to accept that sometimes this fire does harm.

You need a particular talent only to want to please. I don't have this talent.

Certainly take the advice of others but always, always be yourself.

After his first training session in heaven, George Best, from his favourite right wing, turned the head of God who was filling in at left-back. I would love him to save me a place in his team, George Best that is, not God.

It is enjoyable to make things visible which are invisible.

A good goal is one that is important and beautiful.

When I was banned for nine months I had an opportunity to focus on something else and I needed to focus on something else. It's who I am. I admire Miles Davis and Chet Baker a lot and I like this instrument, so I tried and I learned and practised for two months. But I stopped after that.

When people are talking about you, it means that you exist.

Whatever happens, there are always things you could have done better. You score two goals and you usually feel you could have done better. You score two goals and you usually feel you could have scored a third. That's perfectionism. That's what makes you progress in life.

My ancestors were fighters, something I have inherited.

I feel close to the rebelliousness of the youth here. Perhaps time will seperate us, but nobody can deny that here, behind the windows of Manchester, there is an insane love of football, of celebration and of music.

I am very mistrustful of people who are constantly over intellectualising things. It kills passion. You have to allow yourself to lose control from time to time.

I see the world become so uniform. Everybody has to be the same. I like people who are different.

Those who hate or disrespect Sir Alex Ferguson , its only because he snatched away their dreams of winning.

The real fans of football come from the working class. Now they cannot afford to come and watch the game.

Ferguson, as a manager, and Ken, as a director, are very similar. One's a great manager, the other a great director, but both have a lot of humanity and a lot of humility. They always give you the energy... with Ferguson when we played a game it was like it was his first game - he's so passionate and gives you ambition every time. And Ken works the same way - they're very similar.

Manchester United is stronger than anybody in the world.

I apologize for nothing.

When you are a rich man you are proud to own a Rolls Royce and when you are a poor man you are proud to own a Renault.

I am searching for abstract ways of expressing reality, abstract forms that will enlighten my own mystery.

I try to find different ways of expressing myself. Without that I will die.

I stopped playing football because I'd done as much as I could. I needed something which was going to excite me as much as football had excited me.

It's my country but I don't want to know about France - I was born there but I feel English.

Often there are players who have only football as a way of expressing themselves and never develop other interests. And when they no longer play football, they no longer do anything; they no longer exist, or rather they have the sensation of no longer existing.

I don't care about the past.

The pressure people put on themselves and the rivalry between the teams is much more marked. And I think that's a good thing. As long as that rivalry remains within the spirit of competition, it con only spur everyone on.

He who has regrets cannot look at himself in the mirror.

We can be eaten by techniques and forget what we have inside of us.

I always planned to retire when I was at the top and at Manchester United I have reached the pinnacle of my career.

When times are difficult, I tell myself, 'I'm just passing through.'

I prefer to play and lose rather than win, because I know in advance I'm going to win.

Being French, to me, is first and foremost being a revolutionary.

Children go where they find sincerity and authenticity.

Every experience makes you a man.

For me, I don't like it when there is too much interference in our lives. We're not children. It is our own life in our hands.

When I was a child I had a dream to become a football player. I always played as I played when I was a child. I tried to improve. I never dreamt of becoming a professional football player, I dreamed just to play with the best players in the best team. I never dreamed to be paid to play. I would have paid to play an FA Cup Final in front of 80,000 people in Wembley. I just tried to play the wonderful game that football is. So, I hope young players will still have this dream.

I always wanted to play against the best.

I don't play against any team in particular. I play to fight against defeat.

We all seem to be about aggression and greed. It's a massive pressure that affects us all.

I don't think the world of football is so serious. It's important to have distance about things and about yourself. If we believe we are kings or gods, we become crazy. We all know it's a game and we all enjoy it together.