Soccer

‘It just came out’: Eric Cantona reveals inspiration for 1995 seagulls comment

Former Manchester United star says his near-30-year silence on subject has been his revenge on the press

Former Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona. Photograph: Getty
Former Manchester United footballer Eric Cantona. Photograph: Getty
Kim Willsher
Wed Mar 27 2024 - 16:34

It was one of the most baffling utterances ever made by a footballer.

When Eric Cantona said at a 1995 press conference: “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea,” everyone was left scratching their heads.

What on earth did it mean? Was Cantona not only a star striker but a philosopher to boot? All he would say by way of explanation was: it meant what it meant.

Now, after decades of speculation and analysis, the 57-year-old has said it was just the first thing that came into his head after he was forced to speak to journalists. And his almost 30-year silence on the subject was a sort of revenge against the press who he said had “destroyed” him.

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The former footballer turned photographer, actor, documentary maker, sports’ coach, poet and now singer made his supposedly profound seagulls and sardines statement after being ordered to speak to the press to explain his notorious kung-fu kick on an abusive Crystal Palace fan at an away game at Selhurst Park in January 1995.

Cantona was banned until the end of the season and narrowly avoided being sent to jail for assault after a two-week prison sentence was reduced to community service. However, the press had a field day.

Manchester United were criticised for taking 36 hours to ban him, while the Mirror described it as “the night football died of shame” and called Cantona “the madman” and the Express accused him of “absolute thuggery in front of children”. Brian Clough, the outspoken former Nottingham Forest manager, said of the player that he would have “cut his balls off”.

The kick was shown 93 times on television over the following two days. Cantona would later say he had just one regret: “I would have loved to have kicked him harder.”

[ Eric Cantona sings the blues, and reds, in Liberty Hall: ‘Much like he was Dublin’s Christ the Redeemer’ ]

Appearing this week on the popular French chatshow C dans l’air to perform a song from his new album, Cantona laughed as he recalled how the phrase had thrown the British press into a frenzy.

“After the [court] judgment they [Manchester United] absolutely wanted me to speak to the press. I didn’t want to but they said it’s important you have to speak to the press. So I said, okay I will speak to the press, in the sense that they want me to speak – I’ll say any old thing.

“They wanted me to speak, I spoke. It just came out and then I left. And the press, they all tried to find a sense to it and make it all philosophical. You know, it just came out like that; maybe it came from my subconscious and maybe unconsciously it created a sense, but the best sense of it was, you make me speak, I speak and who cares whether the words make sense.”

Cantona – who scored 82 goals for United and won four league titles and two doubles – added: “You know, they [the press] destroyed me. But in a way I have had my revenge. They were all trying to find a meaning and they all asked me to explain and I said nothing.”

The seagulls and sardines are now in his song I’ll Make My Own Heaven from his just released album, Cantona sings Eric, a song dedicated to Manchester that he performed to a rapturous audience in Manchester last October at his first official concert.

“[The people of Manchester] gave me so much, I wanted to give something back. Manchester in the 1990s was Manchester United,” Cantona told C dans l’air, adding: “We were rock stars. I grow up, spend time with the club that succeeded and won after six years without titles, it was such a hopeful town and still is now.”

The star, who played himself in the 2009 Ken Loach film Looking for Eric and has never knowingly undersold himself, added: “I sing ‘then the press called me the greatest philosopher ... and I think they were completely right’. And they were right.” – Guardian