Cantona's genius

Mr. Piero Ronci's opinion of Eric Cantona (Aug. 31) looks more like jealousy than hate or disinterest. And I believe Mr. Ronci's disappointment mostly comes from the Italian championship.

I totally agree with Mr. Ronci that a professional soccer player has to behave correctly on the field and that the English media are specialists in the so-called "exaltation from nothing". But despite these two facts, Eric Cantona deserves his star status in England and elsewhere. Over the past few years, the English championship has probably become the most spectacular in Europe, while the Italian one offers a strict diet of typical single-goal games.

In fact, it could be said that Italy has never been so desperately craving for stars. Since his ouster from the Azurri, Roberto Baggio has lost his national hero status. Gianfranco Zola is getting a bit too slow to impress his fans and the only one I see who could deserve international star status seems to be the young Alessandro del Piero who unfortunately suffers a lack of international experience which he will surely get over very soon.

England largely paid for its passion and enthusiasm with the Heysel drama and it almost got through "Route 66" again in July. Everyone should know that English soccer is back!

And as soon as he got back from his entirely deserved ban, it must be said Eric scored almost every important goal for United and I won't mention all the decisive passes he made during this past season. This player has an exuberant personality but there is some genius in his feet as well. Cantona is like that, whether you like or not, and I hope nobody is going to change him.

ANTOINE ALLONSIUS

Jakarta