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29th October 2018
07:22pm GMT
Not moving from the spot, Cantona slowly turned 360 degrees, staring into every corner of the Old Trafford stands, a picture of calm as United supporters toasted a truly special goal. If ever a moment typified the Frenchman's swagger, this was it.
From the second Cantona's foot had dug underneath the ball, the goalkeeper - Lionel Perez - stood little chance.
Recalling the moment, the former United number seven explains that an exchange - or lack of one - with Perez prior to a game a few years previously had contributed to his choice of celebration.
"The goalkeeper, Perez, was French and I played with him when he was a young player," Cantona explained, speaking at an event at Salford's Lowry Theatre.
"At that time I was 24. I wasn't very old but I played for France. "I'd started playing when I was 17 and the older players gave me confidence, so I said to myself I would do the same thing when I will be older. So I helped him and he was good. "Before that game, in the tunnel just before we came out on the grass, I went to him and wanted to shake his hand and say hello to him, but he didn't want to shake my hand, he didn't want to say hello. "So when I scored this goal - which is a humiliation for a goalkeeper - it was a real, great pleasure. It was the right answer [to Perez's snub before the game].Reenacting his celebration, Cantona explained he did it so that Perez would be able to see him from every possible angle - to rub it in, in other words. "[I did it] So he could see me from the front, the back, the side," he said. "Then I could take all the energy of the fans." Cantona would retire at the end of that same season having guided United to another Premier League title.
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