Collar up, chest out. Eric Cantona has always been an artist. With the same defiant freedom that once lit the theatre of dreams, he's now burning through poetry, music and the art of becoming something else entirely.
Collar up, chest out. Eric Cantona has always been an artist. With the same defiant freedom that once lit the theatre of dreams, he's now burning through poetry, music and the art of becoming something else entirely.
"I'm afraid of emptiness," says Eric Cantona as he ponders the creative spirit that has driven him his entire life. "In emptiness, doubts can come." In the glorious life of the French footballing legend turned actor, poet and musician, you get the feeling that he has rarely allowed doubt to cloud his mind. He has always been a singular and idiosyncratic character. He does what he wants when he wants to do it, and right now he wants to make albums. 'Perfect Imperfection' is his debut record and an encapsulation of all the qualities that have made him such an enigma.
Adored by millions on the pitch, most notably during his five-year period with Manchester United at the height of the 90s Premier League boom, Eric Cantona was a rock star before he even discovered he could actually write songs. He was a mercurial figure with his own particular iconography that made him stand out over everyone else. Think of the popped collar, the footballing genius, the terrace chants ("Ooh, ahh!"), the fierce competitiveness and, yes, the controversies: the kung fu kick that got him banned for nine months, and his wonderfully inspiring and philosophical response about 'the seagulls following the trawler…" All of these images are indelibly etched in our cultural memory banks, no matter what generation you are from.
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