Eric Cantona named in the Premier League Hall of Fame

Eric Cantona

met the back of the net 70 times in 156

games for

, where he contributed to four league titles before he hung up his boots in May 1997.

The ex-France international is voted by fans to be one of the six inductees picked from a list of 23 men.

Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry were the first to be introduced into the Premier League Hall of Fame, that honors those who made extraordinary records of success on the pitch and contributed a great deal in the division since the time it was created.

Players who retired by August 1, 2020 were eligible for induction. Cantona played a crucial role for the Red Devils’s talismanic 1990s under the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson, when they put an end to their league title drought when he joined the club in 1992-93 season.

"

I am very happy and very proud and at the same time, I am not surprised!"

said 54-year-old Cantona, who believes to be an "exception" among the list of players.

"Of course, to play in England was a dream. It is a dream of everybody to play in the Premier League.

"I have been lucky to play in this [Manchester United] team with wonderful players, a wonderful manager and wonderful fans.

"It was the football I dreamt about because Manchester United is a club where they want to win things but in a good way. It was like this in the time of Matt Busby. This is the identity of this club, the philosophy of this club."

When Cantona kicked a Crystal Palace fan in 1995, he was no longer the captain of the France national team and he was also banned from football for nine months.

The Frenchman, who is called “King Eric” by his United fans, is famous for turning up his collar while playing.

"

I think for one game I just put my shirt like this and my collar stayed up and we won,"

he said.

"So, because we won I kept it and we kept winning. It became something special, but you have players who keep their underwear and not wash it. I prefer to pull my collar up!"

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