Eric Cantona has gone on to become a successful actor and, more recently, singer since retiring from professional football in 1997, but one of his former Manchester United team-mates has revealed a surprise lack of talent the Frenchman has in one particular area.
During his five years at Manchester United, Cantona helped transform the club’s fortunes on the pitch, winning four Premier League titles and two FA Cups.
Off the pitch, though, he simply couldn’t play chess, with former team-mate Denis Irwin revealing how he used to constantly beat him at the game.
Eric Cantona couldn’t play chess
“He was hopeless – or I was too good,” Irwin said while speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet. “I went to a school that represented Munster at All-Ireland and we got beat in the final. I used to play chess regularly, even used to play chess against the computer back in the day.”
Irwin has previously revealed to to FourFourTwo this ability to play chess and Cantona’s lack of ability – perhaps surprisingly, too, considering the Frenchman’s pensive demeanour.
“I was never national chess champion but I played for my school and we finished second in the national championship,” Irwin told FourFourTwo in February 2021. I was a decent chess player, don’t worry about that. I used to play Eric, but games wouldn’t last long. I’ve been watching The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix.”
While the Irishman derides Cantona for his chess skills, he highlights just how important he proved in gluing that Manchester United team together at the start of the 1990s.
“It always comes down to the players – we were struggling for goals in big games, and then when Eric Cantona joined in 1992, it became an entirely different ball game,” Irwin said. “Ryan Giggs and Lee Sharpe could run like the wind, Andrei Kanchelskis as well. We just needed someone to put it all together.
“I wouldn’t say he [Cantona] was the final piece of the jigsaw, but he opened up everything for us – we felt that in big games we were just short. Scoring goals is very important as well – as more and more forwards got involved, we used to score for fun. Sparky [Mark Hughes] was an old-fashioned centre-forward who held the ball up for you, and he needed players running past him.
“Eric came in and he suited the English Game. He was a big lad, 6’2, strong and intelligent, and he knitted it all together for us. The manager was brilliant in bringing players in, but Eric was a big plus – as well as Peter Schmeichel.”
