Product Description

Many have tried to persuade Eric Cantona to write his autobiography. He never will. Philippe Auclair has interviewed every key player in Cantona's life to produce a biography that reveals, for the first time, the heart and inner thoughts of this most extraordinary character. Cantona played for six different French clubs, making his international debut at twenty-one, before coming to England in 1992 and making an immediate impact with Leeds United. He transformed the team but became even more talismanic when he moved to Manchester United, where to this day Manchester United fans refer to him as 'King Eric'.Eric Cantona graced the Premiership like few others and he remains a deeply compelling figure to anyone who cares remotely about football. Cantona quotes: '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.' '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.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #323 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
'Here, at last, is a definitive account of Cantona's extraordinary life...Auclair writes with an elegance most native sportswriters might envy...A truly great book...' --GQ

`An imaginative and groundbreaking book' --Kevin McCarra, Guardian

'At once elegant and exhaustive... This book, about an outstanding gifted footballer by an outstandingly accomplished journalist. A tour de force.' --Brian Glanville, World Soccer

`A meticulously detailed examination of a fascinating character... an unusual book, one that might just usher in a new age of football biography.`
--Jonathan Wilson, 4-4-2 Magazine

About the Author

Philippe Auclair has been a correspondent with France Football for over a decade, and is a prolific freelance journalist on both sides of the Channel. He is also Radio Monte Carlo's main match commentator, and a bestselling author in his native France. He lives in London.

Customer Reviews

The thinking fan's biography
A meticulously researched and elegantly written homage to one of the legends of the modern game. Mr Auclair never attempts to conceal his bias but the unflinching accuracy of his narrative of Cantona's career is compelling and, in the end, persuasive. As a football journalist Auclair is obviously an "insider" but he eschews gossip and rumour, choosing instead to search for the deeper philosophical, cultural, and economic connections between the man and the game.

A Tour de Force
This is an astonishing work that not only raises the bar for all sports biographies, it sets a new benchmark for biographies in general. Impeccably sourced and laden with personal insight I came away with a much better understanding of the genius that is Eric. This is an absolute must for all sports fans especially for those who have admired Eric for so long as he is finally revealed in all his three-dimensional and flawed but human glory.

A bit like Eric...flawed genius
First of all I would like to say that this is a fantastic book on the subject of one of the most fascinating characters certainly in football, if not in all sports. Auclair has managed to write a comprehensive account of Cantona's life right up until he retired from football in 1997 and there is even references from sources written beyond this date to make it easily the best book on the market on this particular subject.

However there are two major concerns from myself. The first is as a result of the author's constant nitpicking of Eric's ghost-written autobiography from 1994, 'Cantona: My Story', which he regularly puts down for its lack of content and factual inaccuracies. With regards to the former, Auclair's book certainly puts it to shame, however the latter gave me the impetus to begin nitpicking with this particular book and found dozens of mistakes based on dates, scorelines, names and even many spelling errors- Manchester United physio Rob Swire being referred to as Robert Swaires stands out.

The second of my concerns is due to the content of his time in England in which Auclair unnecessarily refers to almost every single game that Cantona played in and divulges his contribution to each of them. Though this is informative it is hardly insightful into the greater workings of Cantona. He brings attention to this in the final chapter so it is obviously something that is shared by the author but surely some editing could have negated any reason to share this with the reader at all?

As I say this is the best book on Eric Cantona and I enjoyed reading it but it is still not a masterpiece in the world of sports biographies.