I think Eric Cantona, former football player, is a real character, a human being caring for the humanity and what is happening to us.

He always seems to me as a thinking individual that is well aware of the physical elements as the metaphysical aspects of our existence. I really like how he uses abstractions to depict or define human nature or the state that we are currently in.

Recently he gave a speech after receiving the UEFA President’s Award, and most people were baffled by his seemingly cryptic and nonsensical address to the audience. First he paraphrased King Lear: “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport”, and then he continued: “Soon the science will not only be able to slow down the ageing of the cells, soon the science will fix the cells to the state and so we will become eternal. Only accidents, crimes, wars, will still kill us but unfortunately, crimes, wars, will multiply. I love football. Thank you.”

I believe he wanted to criticize politicians and institutions. As we know, common people have no real power, the elite is controlling and manipulate people and nations to go against each other when it is in their interest. That is why we always have wars and misery. In regards to science, he maybe wanted to warn us that those in power will use technology to control us and the rules of the game. At the end of his his speech he only said “I love football”, meaning he is sad that football is not what it used to be, and it is getting destroyed by those who are in charge.

In an interview he said that “[b]ig democracies are, in a way, dictatorships”, which is in a sense a continuation of the meaning of his mystical speech.

Anyway, I think Eric Cantona is an interesting person who wants to know who he is, and it seems that he genuinely cares about people.