Protagonists on the football pitch and protagonists on the stage of the Premio Navicella Sardegna: after having been opponents in the Premier League, Gianfranco Zola and Eric Cantona meet again in Porto Rotondo for the award ceremony created to celebrate Sardinians around the world.

On Saturday, during the key evening of the 23rd edition hosted by the journalist of Videolina (which will broadcast the ceremony on Saturday at 9 pm) Egidiangela Sechi, “Magic Box”, Sardinian from Oliena, presented the prize, the silver vessel inspired by the famous Nuragic bronze, to Cantona, Sardinian by origin on his great-grandparents' side, from Ozieri and Torralba.

" Eric has always been a worthy opponent, when I was asked to come to Porto Rotondo to reward him I accepted immediately ", said Zola, who won the Premio Navicella per lo Sport in 2003, the year he moved from Chelsea, with whom he won the FA Cup twice and a League Cup, to Cagliari. "When I arrived at Chelsea, in 1996, Manchester United were the team to beat, and for me it was a pleasure to face a unique player, who had won four Premier Leagues in 5 years. I learned a lot from him, and discovering that he had Sardinian blood in his veins helped me to forgive him at least a little for the titles he took away from us ".

Zola, in fact, admits: «I wasn't aware of his connection with Sardinia, but when I found out I understood where my sympathy for Eric came from». Who thanks the one he defines as «a football legend» and says: « My great-grandparents emigrated from Sardinia in 1913, when my great-grandmother was pregnant with my grandfather, who was born in Marseille, where I was born too : my character is like this also thanks to my origins. Sardinia is a magnificent place, and the people are very tough. As I am, sometimes».

As Cantona was in football, one of the strongest number 7s of all time, even in the French national team, where a certain Michel Platini, after convincing him not to abandon football (“I had lost the passion”, admits Cantona), advised him to leave the French championship for the English one. It was 1992, and Eric was not even 26 years old. «I did a trial with Sheffield Wednesday, then I ended up at Leeds». The rest is football history. Even if Cantona is not only this.

Having shelved his football career prematurely at the age of 31, the former striker ("I started as a goalkeeper in a match that my team won 6-0, and since I didn't touch the ball, and I really wanted to play, and not be a spectator, I changed roles", he recalls), known for his hot temper and the raised collar of his shirt ("Superstition", he says) which contributed to making him an idol, has turned to cinema. His participation in the role of the French diplomat in "Elizabeth", with Cate Blanchett, is famous. Although he loves to remember the experience with Ken Loach in "Diff'rent Friend Eric". " I love his films, acting with him was a great opportunity , because he is an exceptional man and a great artist of social cinema", underlines Cantona. Who now has a new passion: music. "I started during Covid, composing and playing the guitar. I enjoy it" , he comments.

After his experience in the video for “Once” by Noel Gallagher (2020), in which he plays the role of a sovereign – he, who as a player had been renamed “Le Roi”, the king – it is reasonable to expect the first single from Cantona. Because he does not anticipate it, but when the opportunity arises he will not hold back. And who knows, maybe he will decide to shoot the video in “his” Sardinia.

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