Cantona: Nasri was justified

Eric Cantona believes Samir Nasri’s goal celebration after scoring against England was a way of hitting back at his critics in the media.

The Manchester City playmaker raised a finger to his lips after grabbing the equaliser for France against Roy Hodgson’s men, and has since revealed this was aimed at journalists who have been critical of him.

Manchester United legend Cantona has backed his countryman’s reaction, and feels it was justified.

“The guy feels attacked. Why not? I hope that the criticism was constructive for him; they wounded him and caused him to rebel,” Cantona told Le Monde.

“If you look at it, it was him saying ‘thank you motherf***er journalists’.”

The former Leeds man went on to say that the money pumped into the game by the media is the reason modern players get paid so handsomely.

“Football is a system where players are the main actors. Where there is football, there are television channels that pay hundreds of millions of dollars for broadcast rights and you, journalists, you sell your newspapers talking about football because it is the most popular sport,” he said.

“If there was no TV, no sponsors, the players would pay for a jersey. So to push the argument to the extreme; the media’s coverage of the sport is primarily responsible (for the players’ high wages).”

France take on Spain in Donetsk on Saturday.