Man Utd legend Eric Cantona responds to Sir Jim Ratcliffe's latest immigration comments

This is not a belated April Fools – Eric Cantona is launching a music career (Picture: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

Eric Cantona has blasted Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe for his latest immigration comments – insisting he would not have signed for the club had the INEOS billionaire been at Old Trafford when he joined.

Ratcliffe, who was born in Failsworth, Greater Manchester, and now resides in Monaco , told the BBC in a recent interview the UK is ‘on the slide’ because of immigration – a problem he claimed ‘no one is tough enough to deal with’.

‘I think, ultimately, we need politicians… two things – we need politicians who are tough enough to deal with some very difficult problems, and we know what the problems are, and we need politicians who will make decisions which are good for the country, not good for themselves and their party. We haven’t had one of those for a long time.’ Ratcliffe said.

Ratcliffe has previously named Cantona as his favourite player of all time but the legendary Frenchman has been perhaps his staunchest critic – insisting last year the club is being ‘destroyed’ under the new co-ownership.

Cantona’s arrival in Manchester in 1992 from Leeds United had a transformative effect on the club, serving as the catalyst for the rampant success they enjoyed at the start of the Premier League era under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Cantona is set to perform a live interview in Cork, Ireland this week and spoke to United fan Pete Boyle in Belfast ahead of that appearance.

Boyle asked the 60-year-old if he would have joined United 34 years ago when he left Leeds had Ratcliffe been co-owner at the club at the time, bluntly replying: ‘No.’

Ratcliffe said the UK is ‘on the slide’ (Picture: AFP via Getty Images) / Denmark OUT

He continued: ‘Of course not. You know what I think about all of this, with this kind of politics. And I cannot understand that someone like this can say something like this when he’s one of the owners of the club.’

@peteboyle70 It’s September 2026 in Belfast but I ask Eric ‘the king ‘ Cantona Would he have joined United in 1992 if Jim Ratcliffe was involved . As usual Eric pulls no punches & recalls his own family who were themselves once refugees. @Georgie @Bella @Sportsheim @Red Army Halden @Manchester United @Utd adoRED @ambo1993 @RedArmyKnut @helen.boyle7 he’llalwaydbeourking ♬ original sound – Georgie ,Bella & Pete B

Cantona added: ‘Football is a very popular sport. Football is made – all the greatest players come from different waves of immigration. Everywhere, in France, in England, everywhere.

‘In France for instance, the greatest players in France, they all come from different waves of immigration. I made a documentary on that, French Football: An Immigrant History. Raymond Kopa, in the fifties, was the son of Polish immigrants who came to France, worked in France, and worked hard in France.

Cantona arrived at United from Leeds in 1992 (Picture: Getty)

‘And then Spanish, like me, my mother came from Spanish refugees. I cannot accept this kind of thing.’