Collars up!

Consider a footballer recounting on leaving football. It is brutally honest to proclaim that once motivation lacks on a morning getting out of bed before a training session then, it is over. Guilt or remorse was no longer the culprit nor the reason that stuck in Éric Cantona's mind and heart during his merry-go-round career that spanned through thick and thin.

The game lost him with his eventual, metaphoric suicide and he found himself a new man ready for new challenges. He prepared himself for it. He, who stuck to his words and began climbing up the ladder in another field, starting from scratch with the help of his famous past, onto the arts. This is generosity from his behalf with drama, sickening spouts of egotistical banter, class, style, elegance - name it what you like and of course, as mentioned, honesty. Generosity because as the following book about to be briefly reviewed, untangles his innocence, his capacity to simplify the complicated aspects of being a public figure.

Divorced and re-married, with Brazil in his heartbeat as he has self-claimed along with the sands of Barcelona he used to escape to, renewal is synonymous with his character. As soon as he saw trouble looming, there was a hint of escape yet merely, a break to return for solution's sake. His beloved hometown of Marseilles formed him - not the footballer but the man whilst his past declarations have shown to be old words that recount with everyday life.

So what is Éric Cantona not doing these days, ever wondered? There are books about him, a ever-growing filmography to his name, there is not to forget, immense loving and respect in memory of his delightful displays once at Old Trafford in Manchester, England and his hundreds if not, thousands of friends and foes.

Cantona, the rebel who would be king - published by Macmillan, 2009.

Philippe Auclair, the author spent years researching extensively. From his early footsteps in Les Caillols when the sun used to warm when he began kicking a ball onto his rebellious, growing ways under the tenure of Guy Roux at AJ Auxerre. These were his early days, it seemed that this non-fictional work that even entailed Nike's promotional and sponsorship contract of him as the face of the brand epitomised the stages and the size of audience this man dealt with.

Brazil's beaches ignited his creativity, flair whereas his antics and imagination came from as he said, "my own surprises". Having successfully coached the beach national football side of France to a world crown but also, the architecture of Barcelona called him and his recital of poetry from his mouth are facets not many understand and would be left bemused.

Arts once again proves to go hand-in-hand with a round ball that gets kicked around. With today millions still remembering him with another number still idolizing him, someone must surely still despise his cocky character that fed insults at stadiums. Surely those money-hungry men that were prowling at his disposal but most importantly, he praised himself until he found his own unique style, sporting a collar up.

Leave his infamy aside, he is where he is today and for his former manager Sir Alex Ferguson, he understood the actions with time. Whilst reading, on the start of chapter fifteen, upon finishing, the opening paragraph amongst many other wise ones display Éric quite poetically as he states with such finesse, wisdom and philosophy:

'There's a fine line between freedom and chaos. To some extent I espouse the idea of anarchy. What I am really after is an anarchy of thought, a liberation of the mind from all convention.'

The result of such a thought for conclusion can vary. Spare a thought for footballers who did not 'make it'. Those who continue to play in lower divisions. Too much cannot be given away on the account of this fantastic non-fiction work by the France Football newspaper owner and biographer. Neither can blasting your own country for example on one hand be constructively and critically blasphemous. It can be controversial in order to immediate spark reactions via the media to God knows what, but within reason. All within reason. Éric said it all simply to attract an audience he needed to progress onto a bigger and bigger stage.

He has shown versatility. This space is designed to get distant, simple messages, to explore the unknown. I encourage it, Éric encourages it, in a more narcissistic, egotistical but recognizable, acknowledgeable way. His extremity of sliding more than balancing from one side of the scale straight to the other in feeding manner, through public or self-adoration is a privilege, a life not many get to live and share.

Now married to French-Algerian actress Rachida Brakni, this man's individuality has shown to bound no limits, (or to be more flexibly speaking), a man of a character when on the field as a footballer or these days on screen.

It is possible to stretch the boundaries that a man can do to his life. Where there are changes or shifts in one's career, this book provides insight for a football follower or for just an avid, curious reader. Where there are problems in a family, one's personal life, relationships, work or home, you whom have taken the time to read this will certainly construct written words, literary works onto everyday life. It may be for the sake of seeking solution by taking action. This is assuringly the healthiest of all, without adulation, without fame, without being opportunistic and hopefully without the intent of getting rich either. Literature enriches lives.

Voted Manchester United's player of the century, he views the sport of beach football as an opportunity to help under-achieving players realise their potential. "They're all top-level athletes and often they come out of youth academies regretting some of the wrong turns they took," says Cantona. "

Dedicating themselves to beach soccer becomes a way of making up for their mistakes." - The Guardian.

In fact, that same British paper takes centre-piece for the remainder;

'That word, 'death', kept coming back in a fascinating interview Éric gave to David Walsh of the Sunday Times in 2006. 'When you are a footballer,' he told the journalist, 'you do something very public, you do it because it is a passion and you feel alive when you're doing it. You feel alive also because people recognize you for the job you do. Then you quit and it's like a death. A lot of footballers are afraid and that is why they go on TV to speak about the game. They do it for themselves. It is important because it helps them to feel alive again, to deal with their fears about this death.'

A bemused Amelia Gentleman had recorded similar thoughts for the Guardian in 2003.

If you only have one passion in life - and pursue it to the exclusion of everything else - it becomes very dangerous. When you stop doing this activity, it is as though you are dying. The death of that acitivity is a death in itself. Often there are players who have only football as a way of expressive themselves and never develop other interests. And when they no longer play football, they no longer do anything; they no longer exist, or rather they have the sensation of no longer existing. Too many players think they are eternal.

Au revoir.