Eric Cantona- the great French balladeer

 Eric Cantona - the great French ballladeer.

When Eric Cantona stepped into a recording studio for the very first time, some of us privately cackled to ourselves because we couldn't really understand his ulterior motive. Had Cantona reached that critical point of his life when he just wanted to experiment and venture into hitherto unconquered fields? Did he see it as some grand plan to diversify into some cultural hinterland that no or few footballers had ever ventured into. We'd heard about his abstract and surrealist poetry and as a Frenchmen we also knew that he was fully conversant with the world of philosophy because he'd obviously swotted up on the subject.

At the height of his career with Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United, Cantona kept spouting out esoteric references to seagulls following trawlers and then after the cheering had stopped at Old Trafford, Cantona thought it an opportune moment to break into the acting world as film director, actor and, quite possibly, scriptwriter for French movies that everybody knew something about but were never quite sure what to make of his long term ambitions.

So we remembered his career trajectory and came to the conclusion that cutting his very first vinyl record represented a logical progression. Cantona was sharp as a needle, intellectually brilliant, articulate, studious, thought provoking and never short of an opinion. You must have thought that a political career couldn't have been that far away since the Frenchmen looked as if he'd always been passionately interested in the world, society, the declining standards within that world, the economy and ecology of the globe as a whole and knew all about the dubious gangsters and shifty opportunists who were controlling and manipulating us. 

It's been some time since footballers found themselves clamping on a pair of headphones and then settling down in front of a microphone before crooning to their hearts content. But then they demonstrated their aptitude for singing, lyricists of the finest quality. But Cantona had always been an avant garde bohemian, the ultimate enfant terrible, always fashionable and de rigeur, the man caught up in the belle epoque, the man with an indefinable je ne sais quoi, a matchless spokesman for his profession with his finger very much on the pulse of the nation.

Back in 1970 the England football squad were the pioneering standard bearers of the pop music world in their often hectic environment. It was pop music and football as a combined force. They gathered together in elegant suits, shirts and bow ties, putting their best faces forward, smiling warmly and then giving us their stirring rendition of a cute ditty called 'Back Home' a song so apt and relevant  because we were at home and too young to understand the wider implications of what was going on. 

So there they were harmonising in unison with perfect pitch and tone but slightly worried that nobody would ever take them seriously. But they stood together, united as a collective choir. The song itself reached number one in the mainstream pop charts and stayed there for a fair number of weeks. This paved the way for a whole new generation of footballers with stars in their eyes, a melody in their voices and a natural desire to appear on the BBC's Top of the Pops.

Earlier on in that year, Chelsea met Leeds United in the FA Cup on a pitch that looked like an allotment site that had once grown cabbages and rhubarb. Just before that Cup Final the Chelsea choristers consisting of Ron Harris, Charlie Cooke, Ian Hutchinson, David Webb and Peter Osgood strolled into a pop music studio and gave the world ' Blue is the Colour' and Chelsea is our name. It was all very good natured, amusing and seemingly a one off. But football had now been converted into an entirely different entity.

There followed a whole succession of FA Cup songs in the years after the 1970 FA Cup Final, some banal, some hilarious and some that bordered on the ridiculous, if occasionally sublime. Football and music were now synonymous with each other. Football became associated with a whole variety of musical genres, neatly encapsulated in song and lyrics. Besides, the vast multitudes on the terraces had been making the loudest of  noises for years although the lyrics were much more colourful and explicit than the footballers they were supporting.

In 1982, Ron Greenwood's England provided us with a personal expression of their souls, a warm homage to Greenwood. The sight of Trevor Francis, Steve Coppell, Bryan Robson, Viv Anderson, Mick Mills and a collection of lovely larynxes belting out Ron's 22 We'll Get it Right still lives comfortably in our memory. At the time we were so enamoured of the concept of footballing singers that we almost accepted it as the prevailing norm. It seemed like a good idea at the time and was instantly chanted in a million local pubs and football clubs across the country.

Three years before, Spurs met Manchester City in the FA Cup Final with two notable adornments in their team. A year before, Spurs had completely broken with footballing tradition when they paraded two Argentinians in their first team. Ossie Ardilles and Ricardo Villa had been instrumental in Spurs enthralling, gripping 3-2 victory over City at the old Wembley stadium after a replay. Spurs are on their way to Wembley was so delightfully cheesy that even now it does sound like the most heartfelt Cup Final song of all time. Ardilles concluded with In the Cup with Totting ham but in years to come the contribution that both Ardilles and Villa had made to English football would become immeasurable.  

And so to the present day and the Eric Cantona experience. We shall never know whether Cantona modelled himself on the celebrated epiglottis of Charles Azanvour. Perhaps he was influenced by the love songs of the  Aznavour back catalogue, that typical example of the French balladeer whose emotional resonance went beyond anything that any footballer had even thought about. And who could ever forget that other chanteur of modern times? Sacha Distel had entranced almost all of his female audience with songs that were laced with a moving poignancy that would last for ever.

The world now awaits the latest exploits of this pop music rock star. When Cantona committed that outrageously unforgivable assault on a Crystal Palace fan during the 1990s, it seemed there was no place for anybody in such an elevated sphere of sport. To even consider an alternative career outside the game seemed almost absurd. But Cantona has reached full maturity, no longer the anarchic face of football or the violent thug who had to be the centre of attention. The kung fu kick on a football supporter, still rankles with good, law abiding fans. We were wholly disgusted. Cantona was suspended and fined quite rightly and did his lengthy community service.

But Cantona now becomes an almost unlikely hero, an anarchist and revolutionary quite possibly, a man craving change and now a singing crooner. If you didn't know that a former Manchester United footballer could come even remotely close to making popular music and writing his own material  then you do now. Cantona will always be the street poet, the man who daringly challenged the status quo and pushed back all the boundaries with literary references.

You'd love to be a fly on the wall in the Sir Alex Ferguson living room. He may be chuckling to himself convinced that he'd never made a more inspired signing for United. It's time to sit back and take notice of the Cantona voice and acknowledge this multi talented genius. We await the inevitable chat show circuit and yet more brazen self promotion. Eric, you're a superstar.