Eric "The King" Cantona

[Redsbusby]

[Andi Istiabudi]

Former Manchester Utd Star Cantona Will Succeed In USA Where Beckham Failed
By Matt Weiner

New York Cosmos CEO Carl Johnson reveals why new Director of Football Eric Cantona will help them crack America.



“I am very honoured to join the legendary New York Cosmos. It’s a big project, a wonderful project. The Cosmos are very strong, beautifully made, with a great past. It’s kind of a mix between football and art.”

And with that characteristically elegant statement, the King was back in the game. Eric Cantona, formerly of Manchester United and Leeds United, perhaps the most charismatic player ever to grace a football pitch was unveiled as the Director of Football for the New York Cosmos.

The Cantona announcement is the start of an ambitious bid by three Brits, former Tottenham vice-chairman Paul Kemsley, Beckham’s former manager Terry Byrne and Carl Johnson to to make football really matter to Americans. The Beckham experiment at LA Galaxy may have sold a few shirts and gossip magazines in the states but the team failed to win silverware and nobody’s going to worship losers.

The announcement, which came close on the heels of the news that Pele was to be the club’s President stunned a football world which had assumed that when the Frenchman left Man Utd for Hollywood, the transfer was permanent. The Cosmos may be yet to build a stadium, recruit a manager or even employ any players but if there’s one thing it has in spades, it’s our attention.

Who will be next, every football fan across the planet is now asking. Maradona as manager? Cruyff as assistant coach? Maldini and Romario as ball boys? This is a living fantasy football and the man living it is New York Cosmos CEO Carl Johnston. The 42 year old Londoner grew up supporting Tottenham – “I saw Martin Peters make his debut in the Seventies”, he says, visibly still thrilled about the experience of witnessing his footballing heroes. Now he is signing them.

Despite the years Cantona has spent out of professional football, appointing Cantona for Johnson was a no-brainer. “A legendary visionary like him will have a tremendous number of opinions and beliefs. He was a phenomenal player, so how can you not get emotionally engaged at the prospect of working with someone like him.”

Spotting legendary visionaries isn’t a problem for Johnson. As head of New York and London based marketing agency Anomaly – named in 2008 as #24 in the “World’s Most Innovative Companies” by Fast Company magazine – he has pioneered an entirely new approach to his business. Rather than just create brands for clients, they prefer to build the products from scratch themselves. “We would rather invent the next VitaminWater than do the ads for VitaminWater,” he explains.

The Cosmos experiment began a year ago when former Tottenham vice-chairman Paul Kemsley bought the rights to the club from former general manager Peppe Pinton and approached Johnson whose clients already included Umbro and Manchester City Football Club.

Instead of being paid a fee for marketing the Cosmos brand, Johnson has taken a share of the club – a business model he calls “skin in the game”. “Sometimes professional companies get paid whether it succeeds of it fails,” he explains. “When you do it this way you could end up with nothing or you could end up doing well but either way you are absolutely committed. Your skin is on the line. This way means it ****ing matters.”

So what next for Johnson, Cantona and the Cosmos? Unable to join the MLS until 2013 because the Red Bulls franchise in New Jersey has exclusive rights to the region for another two years, the club has big plans for this summer. A series of ‘Inspiration’ games are planned. These, Johnson bills as ultra-competitive exhibitions games in which two teams of global superstars will play alongside and against players from the Cosmos’s budding youth set-up. By 2013, the Cosmos hope to be ensconced in a 30-40,000 capacity stadium in Queens and will then be ready to take on America.

“The really big win will be if we break football through its current fan base in the US. Kids love it and the national team is getting better but there’s no Manchester United of the MLS,” says Johnson. “The New York Cosmos could be that domestic powerhouse.”

The New York Cosmos, after all, does have a history of success. They were five-time champions of the North American Soccer League in a 10-year period between 1972 and 1982 before the competition folded in 1985. Cantona, too, is not the type to settle for anything less than victory. “I will do everything that I can to help the New York Cosmos find our way to regain the number one position in the United States and then for us to become one of the best clubs in the world over the coming years,” the Premier League legend told the press on his appointment.

Ultimately for Johnson, Cantona and The Cosmos, mere silverware is not enough though. “In order to continue the path the original Cosmos set out, we aim to be bigger than just a team, we want a place in popular culture, in media, in entertainment, in celebrity and in fashion. The goal is to make a real dent on the culture of the United States.”

Source : http://www.sabotagetimes.com

[Andi Istiabudi]

Eric Cantona excited by New York Cosmos adventure: It's a rock 'n' roll club

Former Manchester United star believes new MLS franchise have the opportunity to dominate American football and names Barcelona as his inspiration.
By Salvatore Landolina

New York Cosmos director of sport Eric Cantona believes the club can push forward with their objectives of returning to the big time in MLS.

The former Manchester United forward took up the role at the club in January to join forces with honorary president Pele, who played for the club during their heyday in the late 1970s, following investment by English businessman Paul Kemsley.

Cantona knows the road back to top-flight football in the United States is a long one, but he is confident of doing a good job, as the Cosmos - named after the team that played in the North American Soccer League in the 1970s - plan to add to the ever growing MLS.

"The Cosmos have a great past and a strong history," Cantona told France Soir.

"It was created by the people of Warner. It is a mixture of football and art, a rock 'n' roll club. New York and me are a perfect match.

"This country is changing football wise. It's evolving and they have plenty to build."

The Frenchman is looking well ahead, and said the model to follow is the Barcelona of Johan Cruyff.

"The plan is to win trophies but also to train, build automation. The model is Barcelona under Cruyff. This is not a job but a passion," he concluded.

Source : http://www.goal.com

[Andi Istiabudi]

Eric Cantona - Legend or Beast?
Author: Jack Richardson

Eric Cantona - a typical Frenchman? His mystical style has won over many during his playing career, both on and off the pitch, but is there a darker side to 'The King'?

Eric was born in Marseilles, and eventually joined his boyhood club in 1988, for a fee of 22 million francs, comfortably breaking the previous transfer record in French football. It was a short while after this transfer, from Auxerre, that he showed the first time of another side to him. After a rather public disagreement with the national selector, Henri Michel, he called him 'de sac a merde', which translates to a bag of...I'm sure you can guess. The outburst earned him a one year ban from national selection.

Indeed, with only 45 appearances made for France 'A', scoring 20 goals, one could say he never really realized his potential in the world of national football. He has only one international title his name, winning the 'Championnat D'Europe Espoirs' in 1988. He disagreed with the French system, and his move to England was far from surprising. After a trial at Sheffield Wednesday, and a short stint at Leeds United, he was transferred to Manchester United, for a fee of £1.2m. It was at Manchester United that he quickly earned his nickname 'Eric the King', and any football watcher, young or old, can only admire his chipped goal into the Stretford End net, and the celebration of his raised arms, responding to the rapturous home crowd.

However, his worst moment also occurred in a Man Utd shirt. In January 1995, after a red card in a match against Crystal Palace, he snapped when a supporter insulted him. Call it red flag to a bull. Call it the dark Cantona. Call it a human reaction to being called unspeakable things. Something clicked. It happens to the best, just ask David Beckham, or even more famously, Zinedine Zidane. In Cantona's case, he kung-fu kicked the supporter, or, as in the far more elegant French language 'il a fait son fameux coup de pied circulaire'.

Cantona has never apologized for the incident, and he recently called it 'the best memory in his career'. Others have a far dimmer view on it, and it was recently names one of the worst seven moments of football. He was condemned to 120 hours of community service.

During a memorable press conference shortly afterwards, he said in English "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think the sardines will be thrown back into the sea" and walked out. Only a French player could do such a thing. Call it poetic, call it madness, one couldn't imagine Wayne Rooney coming out with a similar statement (in fact, any comprehensible statement from Rooney would be appreciated...)

So is Cantona a bigger success in England than in France? The man certainly believes so, and it's clear that he revels in being adored by the English public. In one advert of his sponsors, he was stood behind the English flag, and said "66 was a great year for English football....Eric was born". He loved the derision he caused, and did nothing to stop it. He was unique, and he needed to be adored, and adored he was. To be anything but the center of attention wouldn't do for Cantona. His football skills were awesome, but his personality dwarfs those by a considerable distance.

He has recently become the manager of the American football team the New York Cosmos, and stated his ambition to make them the best team in the world. His vision was outstanding in his first press conference, and furthermore totally outrageous. But that's Cantona. The English Frenchman. A darker side? Perhaps. But then, aren't all geniuses flawed in some way?

Source : http://technorati.com

[theater of dream]

The King's Kungfu Kick was one of best memories during i support United...

[Andi Istiabudi]

Originally Posted by theater of dream

The King's Kungfu Kick was one of best memories during i support United...

Definitely agree with you ...

[Red Stain]

jagoan ane nih.. gw ngefans sama United gara2 liat Cantona maen.... berkarisma...















ini sedikit video ttg beliau maaf bajakan

[Andi Istiabudi]

Wah berarti aksi tendangan Kungfu Cantona benar donk, hehehe ...

Eric Cantona's kick victim spared jail for assault on football coach

The Crystal Palace fan who was famously kicked by Eric Cantona at a Manchester United match in 1995 has been spared jail for punching another man at a children's football game.



Matthew Simmons, 36, who was kicked by Cantona during United’s game with Palace on January 25 1995, was handed a six-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, plus ordered to undertake 150 hours of community service for attacking Stuart Cooper – the former manager of his son's football team.

Last month, a jury found Simmons guilty of assault causing actual bodily harm after hearing the 36-year-old clashed with Mr Cooper at a pre-season match following his the latter’s decision to drop his son from his under-8s side, allegedly after learning of the Cantona incident.

On sentencing Simmons at Kingston crown court, Judge Michael Hopmeier said: ‘On August 7 2010, families came to watch a football match. Your own son was playing as well as the son of your victim.

‘For reasons that remain unclear, you decided to assault your victim by punching him repeatedly in the face, arms and body. It seems there been some antagonism between you and him as a result of events that had taken place some years previously.’

As well as the suspended sentence and community service, Simmons was also ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation to his victim and £2,000 in prosecution costs.

Source : http://www.metro.co.uk

[VaDLi]

berarti emang si simmons ngajakin berantem cantona dong waktu itu...

[Andi Istiabudi]

Originally Posted by VaDLi

berarti emang si simmons ngajakin berantem cantona dong waktu itu...

Bahasa akademisnya "memprovokasi", hehehe ...