The year is 1994 and Eric Cantona is striding up the Wembley steps, reflecting on the two-goal salvo that has secured his first taste of Cup final glory for Manchester United.
Having arrived with a big reputation, he has not let it hold him back, his Wembley brace showing once again that he thrives under pressure, punctuating a brilliant first full season atop the Red Devils’ scoring charts.
Sound familiar?
Fast forward to 2017 and almost 23 years after Cantona’s double helped beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final, a new Old Trafford cult hero has been crowned, one with all the hallmarks of the Frenchman who United fans still hail as ‘The King’.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s League Cup final-winning intervention against Southampton on Sunday reminded vividly of Cantona in his prime; a pair of players always shining on the big occasion, synonymous with success.
On the pitch, comparisons are obvious. Both players share a desire to entertain, a voracity for virtuosity that resonates with supporters of a club for whom George Best remains such a paragon.
Where Cantona brought Gallic flair, Ibrahimovic now provides Scandinavian swagger. Two strikers boasting supreme control, for whom goalscoring is as much about style as substance – the 18-yard box a canvas on which their creativity can be projected.
Influential performances are one thing but it is off the field where the parallels can really be drawn. While outsiders questioned Cantona’s temperament and ego, Sir Alex Ferguson trusted his leadership qualities to such a degree that he was willing to allow stalwarts like Paul Ince, Bryan Robson and Mark Hughes to leave the club and pass the baton of seniority to his star forward.
Fergie’s Fledglings were nurtured by the Frenchman, who helped instill in them an aversion to losing that laid the foundation for the unprecedented success that followed for Giggs, Beckham, Scholes et al.
“When I first came into the team at United, we used to watch Eric stay behind later than any player, practising every day, and it rubbed off on us,” Beckham once said of Cantona. “The best moments were when he came up to you and said, ‘great goal.'”
A supreme work ethic and appetite for self-betterment are also among Ibrahimovic’s chief attributes. When he arrived at United, Jose Mourinho found a dressing-room desperately lacking killer instinct; the injection of Ibrahimovic and his winning mentality has been infectious.
“For the young players to see his character and the way he approaches every game is invaluable,” Marcus Rashford recently said. “We have to try to learn from him while he is here and take what we can from his game.”
Despite his advancing years, Ibrahimovic is still leading by example. The two goals in the 3-2 victory over Southampton took him to 26 for the season, one more than Cantona managed in his first full campaign for United.
“This is what I predicted, everything I saw would happen,” Ibrahimovic said after the League Cup final, exuding his customary confidence. “I came here to show everyone what I could do. I keep doing what I’m doing.”
Ibrahimovic’s status as a football icon has long been assured and there is no question that United’s current No. 9 has both the aura and ability to compete with Cantona.
But if he wants to emulate the Frenchman and become a true legend of Old Trafford, this season should be just the beginning; Zlatan must, like Cantona, be the catalyst for the return of sustained success to Manchester United.
