Eric Cantona’s first days in England have been recalled by his former teammates at Sheffield Wednesday.
Cantona is a legend in the English game – an icon, if you will – having won one First Division title with Leeds and four Premier League trophies at Manchester United.
But the Frenchman’s first spell in the country came during a one-week trial at Sheffield Wednesday in January 1992, where he played just one game – a six-a-side fixture against Major Indoor Soccer League side Baltimore Blast.
Former Wednesday striker Danny Wilson admits that the players were expecting a more controversial figure when he joined.
“We’d been reading articles about him and what he did in France, but for the week we had him he was no problem at all,” Wilson told The Times.
Gordon Watson, a former Wednesday striker, added: “I remember we had a chat about cars once because he liked his cars,” Watson recalls. “He would say, ‘I have got a Citroen, a Renault and . . . a Rolls-Royce.’”
Recalling an instance where Cantona was the subject of a practical joke, whereby his cowboy boots were tied together thrown to the ceiling of the dressing room and wrapped around a light fitting, Watson adds that Cantona did not take the prank personally. “He was as good as gold,” he said.
Cantona’s one-week trial was ill-timed during the winter, meaning that he was restricted to playing indoors and was not able to train on grass at Hillsborough.
Manager Trevor Francis offered him an extended trial of another week, but Cantona refused. He joined Leeds the following month.
“He didn’t really want to run in behind people, so if you played that kind of ball, he would just stand there and look at you with disdain,” said Wilson, who remembers the Frenchman ordering a lunch of steak and chips midway through a double training session.
“I remember saying to him, ‘Woah, what are you doing? We’re training this afternoon’,” said Wilson. “He replied: ‘Well, you might be, but I’m not.'”
