NY Cosmos chief Cantona to make Man Utd return

Manchester United legend Eric Cantona will return to the club a little under 15 years after he retired from football.

The Frenchman, who won four league titles with United in the 1990s, is set to head back to Old Trafford as director of soccer of reformed American club New York Cosmos who will meet some United players in Paul Scholes’ testimonial.

Cantona will pit his managerial tactics against former boss Sir Alex Ferguson when he brings together senior professionals such as Fabio Cannavaro, Robbie Keane, Gary Neville and Wayne Bridge with nine players from the Cosmos U23 setup to take on some of the ‘Class of ‘92’ of which he was a part at United.

The match, which takes place on Friday, will be a good chance for Cantona to continue his development of the young players of the club and Cosmos vice-chairman Terry Byrne said ‘King Eric’ had slowly but surely come around to the idea of the MLS hopefuls.

"At first, it was difficult for Eric to understand what we were doing," said Byrne.

"But after two or three meetings he came to New York, loved the city and his family moved as well.

"His biggest passion is developing talented young players. That is his dream and his vision. He has a very clear strategy for what he wants to do with his kids.

"Once we explained what we wanted and showed him a documentary about Cosmos' history, he stood up and said 'this is a combination between sport and art. I love it'."

 
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