Eric Cantona kung fu kick: a moment that changed football?

This weekend sees the 20th anniversary of a moment no English football fan who was around at the time will ever forget – Eric Cantona's inafmous kung-fu kick on a supporter after being sent off at Crystal Palace.

The volatile Frenchman lost his temper early in the second half of a league match at Selhurst Park and kicked out at Palace player Richard Shaw. He was shown a red card by referee Alan Wilkie but worse was to follow for, as he left the field, Cantona blew his top at fan Matthew Simmons who was berating him from the stands.

What happened next was almost unbelievable as Cantona launched himself studs first into the crowd, following up his kick with a volley of punches before being dragged away by stewards as chaos erupted around him.

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Cantona was banned for nine months, ordered to perform 120 hours community service and the episode, along with Cantona's inexplicable quote about seagulls and trawlers, went down in football folklore long before the antics of Balotelli, the biting of Suarez and Zidane's infamous headbutt.

With the anniversary approaching, The Guardian describes it as "the night that changed football forever".

"Some have argued that the events of that evening added to Cantona's appeal and eventually, in the form of sponsorship deals, to his bank balance," writes Simon Burnton for the paper. "To others it remains a stain on his reputation."

However you view it the impact was seismic. "If it had happened today, with the pervasiveness of Facebook, Twitter, Vine and smartphones, Eric Cantona could have broken the internet," says Kiran Moodley of The Independent.

One of the journalists at Selhurst Park that night, Gerry Cox, writing for Goal.com, describes the incident as "the Premier League's JFK moment".

"And at the end of it all, the legend of Cantona grew and grew," he adds. "Just like the number of people claiming to have been there and seen it all first hand."

Cantona was cast as public enemy number one in the wake of the incident, but when questioned about it in 2011 the Frenchman was typically unapologetic.

Asked about his favourite memory of his career he said: "When I did the kung fu kick on the hooligan... it's like a dream for some, you know sometimes to kick these kind of people," he said. "I did it for [the fans]. So they are happy. It's a kind of freedom for them... "It's a great feeling, but different."