As at club level, Eric Cantona’s international career was eventful to say the least. The native of Marseille certainly compiled 45 selections and 20 goals in 1987 and 1995. More than honorable totals, even unexpected when in 1988, he dealt with Henri Michel, the coach at the time of “shitbag”. “I will no longer play for the French team as long as Henri Michel is at its head. Don’t talk to me about him anymore, I don’t know him anymore… One day, I will be so strong that I will have to choose between him and me…”, he adds.
Eric Cantona ended up being banned from the Blues for a year before Michel Platini, who had succeeded Henri Michel on the bench of the France team, recalled him. The King’s career in selection was also marked by the fiasco of November 13, 1993 against Bulgaria.
Aimé Jacquet uncompromising
Deprived of the World Cup in the United States, Eric Cantona hoped to make up for it during the Euro organized two years later in England, the country which had crowned him King, or even at the World Cup at home. It was nothing of the sort. The fault, undoubtedly, in his famous kick against a Crystal Palace spectator, who had uttered xenophobic insults against him after an expulsion, and in the nine-month suspension which followed.
The fault also lies with Aimé Jacquet, who nevertheless made him his captain. The coach sees further than this Euro in England and prefers to rely on Zinedine Zidane and Youri Djorkaeff to prepare for the 1998 World Cup. His last appearance in blue was therefore the friendly match played against the Netherlands, on January 18, 1995 , a week before his collapse against Crystal Palace. And it was the same for Jean-Pierre Papin.
