In the light of the club’s eventual fate, the attempt to seduce Cantona can look like the gesture of a gambler playing his last hand. It was not so. In truth, for most outsiders, Roux included, Éric looked set to become another ornament in Lagardère’s folly. ‘One day, Canto comes to me and says: “M. Lagardère has invited me for dinner – how should I dress?” He had a pair of jeans on which looked as if he had slashed them with a knife. I told him: “You can’t go dressed like that. Go buy yourself a suit.” “A suit? Like yours?” “No, no – a young man’s suit! Go to Patrick.” Patrick was a Jewish-Tunisian tailor who ran a small shop in the Rue du Temple. He was gentle, very good at his job, and mad about football. He went to Patrick. “I’ve got my suit, M. Roux!” “And what about the tie?” “A tie? Like you?” “No . . . a leather tie, something for young people, you see!” So he bought it. I saw Éric and Isabelle after they’d met Lagardère. “Oh la la . . . it was like in the Middle Ages! The servants! They had wigs! And carried halberds! . . . and Mrs Lagardère . . . she’s so, so beautiful!” So I thought – Canto is going to Matra Racing.’
What’s more, Éric had noticed, hung on a wall of Lagardère’s palatial home, a painting by Joan Miró, one of his favourite artists. An original. The ‘man of taste and of culture’ who had so impressed Cantona also presented him with two books, one about Pablo Picasso, the other an essay on the Catalan surrealist. Éric and Isabelle’s home would soon become too exiguous for all these presents.
What Roux didn’t know is that Lagardère’s rival, Bernard Tapie, had a powerful ally in the person of Gérard Bourgoin, Auxerre’s CEO. Tapie was in many ways an exact negative of Lagardère, in birth, character and social trajectory. Lagardère glided on deep, richly coloured carpets without a sound; the floor shook every time Tapie’s feet (slipped into expensive Italian shoes) hit the ground. Lagardère spoke gently, each word accompanied by a smile; Tapie swore like a trooper, and one with a vivid imagination to boot. Few men could make as valid a claim to have made themselves as ‘Nanard’ Tapie, the Parisian prole who (after a brief stint as an unsuccessful pop crooner in the sixties) kicked off his business career by selling televisions door to door – introducing himself as an imaginary ‘quality controller’ employed by the state-controlled networks, who lent out sets free of charge for a week, then came back and, with genuine charm, convinced his preys to buy what was at the time an extraordinarily expensive piece of equipment.
If Lagardère was a product of his class, Tapie was entirely self-made. He became one of the most remarkably successful businessmen of his generation, building a portfolio of internationally renowned companies (Adidas, for example) which had fallen on hard times and could be bought for – literally – nothing; as soon as they became profitable again (thanks to some ‘restructuring’ which he blamed entirely on the previous owners), he would sell them, and move to another easy picking. There was genius in Tapie. He would become an MP, an MEP, a short-lived minister of cities in Pierre Bérégovoy’s Socialist government. He would try his luck as an actor. He would try anything, apparently driven by a ferocious belief in himself (verging on recklessness) that some found mesmerizing, others appalling and which eventually led to his downfall.7 The Tapie who courted Cantona was approaching the apex of his ascent. The boat he sailed in the Mediterranean, the Phocéa, was one of the world’s most luxurious yachts.
In 1986 Tapie had taken control of Olympique de Marseille, France’s best-supported club. His instinct told him that, in order to further his political ambitions (which some say included winning the Presidency of the République itself), he needed to establish an impregnable base somewhere, anywhere, provided he could rule it unchallenged. It should be said that he had a genuine liking for and understanding of sport. When Bernard Hinault, then Greg Lemond, ruled the Tour de France in the early 1980s, they were wearing the colours of one of Tapie’s companies, La Vie Claire. Tapie had also sent his manager, Gérard Banide, to Auxerre before making his big move; Banide’s role was to explain to Éric which role he would play in the Marseille team: that of a ‘numéro dix’, a goalscoring playmaker, a string-puller in the mould of Platini, rather than the centre-forward Célestin Oliver and Guy Roux had in mind. Cantona was strongly attracted to the maverick millionaire he would later dub ‘a demon’. ‘If everyone was as interesting as Tapie, I’d buy the papers more often,’ he had said in 1987. One year later, his suitor announced himself in his customary dramatic fashion. Lagardère had invited Éric to his luxurious residence; Tapie would invite himself to Cantona’s little house in the forest.
He chartered a private plane and landed in a small airfield at Branches, a few miles away from Éric’s village, jumped in a car, and arrived at his destination in the middle of the afternoon. He only stayed for a few minutes to deliver his message. ‘I’m speaking to you man to man,’ he said. ‘There’s no need for big words. I want you. Whatever the other one is offering you, I’ll give you the same – and you’ll be at home! So long, Éric!’ Then he left. Yes, there was genius in Tapie.8
Cantona stood to multiply his salary not ‘by five or ten’, but by twenty, whichever club he decided to join. Figures of £4,000–5,000 a week were mentioned in the press, which apparently weren’t that wide of the mark: Éric was about to be promoted to the super-elite of Europe’s best-paid footballers. But money wasn’t uppermost in his thoughts. In this as in so many other things, Isabelle’s feelings and his own were perfectly attuned. He had been shaken by Lagardère’s easy eloquence, and could see himself building a unique creative relationship with Enzo Francescoli at Matra Racing. But he had less than twenty-four hours to come to a decision. Alain Migliaccio advised him to sleep on it, and, during the night, Éric dreamt of Marseilles, not Paris. Not for the last time, he chose to trust his impulses.
That very morning, Éric and Isabelle made their way to Tapie’s extravagant townhouse, the seventeenth-century Hôtel de Cavoye in the seventh arrondissement of Paris. Both felt incredibly nervous. Isabelle slipped on the marble floor, Éric caught her by the arm just as she was about to hit the ground. A bad omen? Then, as the contracts were laid out on Tapie’s desk to be signed, the phone rang. Migliaccio’s assistant was on the line: a close associate of Silvio Berlusconi wished to let Cantona know that AC Milan, Italy’s champions elect, wanted him to partner the prodigious Marco van Basten at the head of the rossoneri’s attack. But Éric had given his word, and would not take it back. It was a noble gesture, in keeping with the persona Cantona wanted to assume for the outside world, but it would haunt him for a long time to come.
Auxerre pocketed 22 million francs – over £2m – for their academy graduate, which made Cantona’s move to Marseille on a five-year contract the most profitable transfer in their history. But AJA’s chairman, Jean-Claude Hamel, was furious. Éric had become even more uncontrollable since the news of his move to OM had been made public. Part of him already mourned the friends he was about to leave, and his way to deal with the grief was to seek their company at all hours of the day and night. The teams that roasted Auxerre in the last three weeks of the 1987–88 season faced a group of footballers who had hardly had a minute’s sleep the night before. No matter how late it was, Éric drifted from room to room in the hotel where Roux’s young men were supposed to gather strength before the Saturday game.
Cantona had a few accounts to settle, too, with a small group of supporters who had barracked him constantly since his departure from Auxerre had been announced. Éric had told his manager how he was intending to put an end to this: by giving them a good hiding after the last game of the season. Fortunately for Guy Roux, Tapie made a suggestion that would scupper Cantona’s plan. Bernard Genghini, who had played such a pivotal role in France’s epic campaigns of 1982, ’84 and ’86, was about to play his last-ever game for the Marseillais. Couldn’t Éric take charge of a symbolic kick-off that day? That would be beautiful. The old passing on the baton to the new, in front of 60,000 passionate supporters . . . Yes, Roux thought, and th
at would happen 400 miles away from the guys he intended to beat up. A fine idea.
Hamel exploded. ‘That’s out of the question! He has to play the last game!’ ‘When Hamel is like that,’ Roux told me, ‘there’s no point in talking to him. This time, I sat down in his office, which I never did, because he’d keep you there for an hour. “Mr Hamel,” I said, “I will not leave until you’ve listened to me. Éric Cantona wants to have a good go at a few people in the ground, including one person who sits in the directors’ box, not very far from you. Nobody will stop him – nobody. Either we tell these five people not to come to the game or . . .” “But we’re paying him!” he screams. “Mr Chairman, they’re paying us 22 million francs, we could consider that this is enough to give them an extra week.” No answer. I think for a while, then tell him: “I might not be going to the game myself, you know.” And in the end, Hamel relented.’ And on this farcical note, Éric Cantona was gone from Auxerre.
THE FRANCE FOOTBALL INTERVIEW
Éric, you’re welcoming us at the Stade de l’Abbé-Deschamps, apologizing for not doing so in your home, as you would have done normally. Why?
There are moments when I don’t feel able to welcome somebody in my home. I do not have the strength for that. Because when someone comes to my home, generally speaking, he’s made to feel welcome. At this point in time, I’d rather stay alone with my wife, with my dogs, to cut myself from everything in my mind. I haven’t bought a paper since the game in Athens [the 2–0 defeat to Panathinaikos, in which Cantona was uncharacteristically wayward in front of goal], I’ve gone away from football as much as I could, to recharge my batteries.
Do you feel you do not have this inner strength any more?
I find it difficult to concentrate. Being aware of it is the hardest part. Then, you must have the inner strength to isolate yourself. I have that strength.
Do you lose this concentration when you speak to journalists?
I avoid journalists because, when I speak, I express a sensitivity, I give [a lot of] myself. A bit too much. It’s energy, ‘juice’ – it’s some of my strength I’m wasting. And twice: when I speak, then when I read the interview.
Your life seems to have changed a lot since you were pre-selected for West Germany-France, on 4 August . . .
There have been changes, but only around me. For example, people say ‘hello’, people I don’t know. They have changed. I haven’t.
Are you troubled by this notoriety?
My environment causes me problems. But in my head, I haven’t changed, because sport is not the only thing in life. When I miss goals as in Athens, I come home, and there are so many things that make me feel good that I forget about such a bad moment. Even if I am a perfectionist and hate failure.
Do you find it normal to have been the object of so many solicitations over the last two months?
I am very much in demand because journalists have the feeling they’ve discovered a gold mine. They are under the impression they can make me say things which are out of the ordinary. As for me – saying these things doesn’t bother me. But you must know that I am not duped by it. I’m not a cretin, I say what I want to say.
. . . with the reputation of not mincing your words.
I do my job on the pitch, the journalist does his by asking me questions. If I don’t play the game, I’m ruining his work. That’s why I’ve made it a rule to be sincere.
Is that why people are seduced by you?
I don’t think about consequences. These are impulsive reactions. I haven’t the power others have to calculate everything they say. I haven’t got the strength because I haven’t got the desire to have it.
Guy Roux says that the media interest in you at the moment is twice as important as what he’s known with [Jean-Marc] Ferreri or [Basile] Boli. Even magazines like Paris-Match talk about Cantona. How do you explain this?
People must have noticed through several press articles that I was not interested in football alone. By the way, I prefer to answer the questions of non-football journalists.
Why?
What can you invent in football? The only possible innovation is to say out loud what players think in silence. That’s all.
But you have, in the space of three or four interviews, invented a new language for a footballer: frank, with no taboo or concessions.
I’m not making it up when I say things that all players feel. When I say that the French players’ frame of mind explains why we’ve never won a European Championship [sic] or a World Cup, I’m not teaching anything new to the players. They’re aware of it. They know that football is played in the head more than with the legs.
Has Cantona got more in his head than in his legs?
I have [as much in the head as in the legs]. Fortunately so, because the day I won’t be able to improve will also be the day when I stop. [He would repeat these words verbatim at his very first press conference in Manchester.]
Talking about heads – it’s shaving yours which really kicked off your career!
I didn’t shave my head to attract attention or to make an ad for myself. It was just an impulse; we were in Brest, preparing for a game, and I felt like having my head shaved, there you go.
Did you do it yourself?
I went to the hairdressers. It took me half an hour to find one who’d agree to do it.
And if you had to do it again, knowing the impact this gesture had?
I’d do it again. I regret other people’s reactions, but they’ll never make me regret my actions, or prevent me from fulfilling my whims, my desires, my fantasies. It only proves that the milieu of football isn’t that deep. If a great painter shaves his head, they’ll say: ‘That’s normal, he’s a creator, he’s a bit crazy.’ In football, people are too used to seeing healthy boys, with nice haircuts, who weigh everything they say . . .
A footballer has no right to be crazy?
A footballer isn’t allowed to be crazy. And that is regrettable.
Would you like to be crazy?
But I am crazy! I need to have crazy reactions to be happy – and even to be good on the pitch. You must have the strength to be crazy. Not there and then, when sincerity is paramount, but afterwards, to claim one’s originality. Football doesn’t accept differences, that’s why it disappoints me. Players are too banal. They are playing machines, they’re not allowed to think for themselves.
Don’t you fear being ‘normalized’ in the end?
I can’t picture myself as anything but crazy, because I need to be happy. Crazy am I, crazy I will be.
Do you know the story of Jean-Christophe Thouvenel9 who, when he started, had a very critical discourse on the football world, and today admits he was wrong?
I can’t answer you. He’s seven or eight years older than I am. Come back in seven or eight years and ask me the question again. But even if he doesn’t speak out any more, I am convinced that, in his head, he hasn’t changed. He’s simply acquired the mastery of his self.
And you haven’t?
I am too disappointed by the environment of football. People who come and watch the games have no sensitivity, no craziness, no capacity to think. I do not live the life I want to live in this milieu. It is only an approach to another life, another life which I’m waiting for.
A life without football?
Yes. Football is a minor art. What interests me is major art.
Painting?
Everybody now knows that I paint. But I have other passions. I want to live in the madness of the creative artist. What interests me is his suffering. Because a great artist is always misunderstood.
Is it how you would live if you weren’t a footballer?
I’d have been a creator or an adventurer. But, above all, I’d be poor. When you’re rich, sincerity is not what comes through. Many people would give their arse to earn money; I who have money, I’d like to be poor. Money doesn’t make me happy.
Does it make you unhappy?
No. The money I earn at the
moment is for my children, not for me. I put it all in a bank account so that they’re happy, so that they don’t suffer from my madness. But when football is over, I’ll leave like someone who hasn’t got money. I won’t have more than two hundred francs in my pocket.
That’s totally crazy.
But you need crazy things! You can’t understand me, and that’s normal: you’re not on the same wavelength as I am. All I’m telling you is that I’ll do that because, as a footballer, I am not completely happy.
Will you be happy one day?
Life is a big dream you wake up from feeling in a good or a bad mood; it depends. Happiness has to be found so that it is not a nightmare, [so] that it is a pleasant dream. That’s what I’m looking for.
You have said that if you weren’t a footballer, you’d be an adventurer. What is an ‘adventurer’ in 1987?
He is a traveller. But not a tourist like soccer players. I’ll give you an example: in Athens, they’d organized a coach trip to the Acropolis. If I hadn’t been a footballer, I’d have walked miles to see the Acropolis. In this case, I stayed at the hotel. It was too easy, it didn’t interest me. The day I go there, I want the impulse to come from me. I’d say that, up to a point, I want to suffer in order to appreciate the Acropolis. Simple things give me no joy.
You’d said – when you were almost unknown – that players ‘disgusted’ you. Would you say the same thing today?
When I say something, I don’t repeat it fifty times. What people must understand is that I am not a criticizing machine. I am a realistic man who says what he thinks.
People stick many labels on you. Do these seem justified to you: a rebel on the fringe of society?
Others see me like that. But it’s true that I may be different.
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