Roy Keane reveals touching Eric Cantona gesture: Keane and Cantona spent four years together at Manchester United before the Frenchman’s early retirement and, although two strong and temperamental characters, enjoyed a decent relationship during this time at Old Trafford.
While Cantona was known to be colourful and volatile, he was also a man of great integrity and a figure that the rest of the Manchester United players looked up to, from the youngest members of the squad to the more senior pros.
This is something outlined by Keane in his book, which was released last week to much fanfare, with one story in particular highlighting just why Cantona was held in such high regard by his peers and manager.
Cantona story
“In my early years at United, there was a players’ pool and each of us would get about �800 out of it at the end of the season for the work we’d done for the in-house magazines, the club videos,” Keane writes.
“We were all on decent money and eight hundred quid wasn’t going to make or break us, so one time, we decided to put all the cheques into a hat and the last cheque out, whoever’s name was on it, got to keep all of the cheques.
“We all put our cheques in except a couple of the younger players – I think it was Becks and Gary and Phil (Neville).
“They opted out. They were new on the scene and didn’t have the money to spare, but Scholesy and Nicky Butt put their cheques in.
“I think I was the third last name out, so I got a run for my money, but the last cheque out – Eric Cantona. He’d won about sixteen grand.
“He came in the next day, there was plenty of banter – ‘Eric, you lucky b——!’ F—— money to money.
“But he had got somebody to cash the cheques, he’d split the money in two and he gave it to Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt because, he said, the two of them had the balls to go into it when they couldn’t really afford it. The two lads took home about eight grand each.
“I just thought, ‘what a gesture.’ Nobody else would have done it.”
While Cantona was known to be colourful and volatile, he was also a man of great integrity and a figure that the rest of the Manchester United players looked up to, from the youngest members of the squad to the more senior pros.
This is something outlined by Keane in his book, which was released last week to much fanfare, with one story in particular highlighting just why Cantona was held in such high regard by his peers and manager.
Cantona story
“In my early years at United, there was a players’ pool and each of us would get about �800 out of it at the end of the season for the work we’d done for the in-house magazines, the club videos,” Keane writes.
“We were all on decent money and eight hundred quid wasn’t going to make or break us, so one time, we decided to put all the cheques into a hat and the last cheque out, whoever’s name was on it, got to keep all of the cheques.
“We all put our cheques in except a couple of the younger players – I think it was Becks and Gary and Phil (Neville).
“They opted out. They were new on the scene and didn’t have the money to spare, but Scholesy and Nicky Butt put their cheques in.
“I think I was the third last name out, so I got a run for my money, but the last cheque out – Eric Cantona. He’d won about sixteen grand.
“He came in the next day, there was plenty of banter – ‘Eric, you lucky b——!’ F—— money to money.
“But he had got somebody to cash the cheques, he’d split the money in two and he gave it to Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt because, he said, the two of them had the balls to go into it when they couldn’t really afford it. The two lads took home about eight grand each.
“I just thought, ‘what a gesture.’ Nobody else would have done it.”