(The man of the moment is George Weah. Next week, he will move into the Liberian State House in Monrovia, as the country’s new President. His story is a classic case of a man who is moving from grass to grace. It is compelling.)
Born October 1, 1966, George Weah started his footballing career in Liberia. He moved to Europe and signed for Monaco Football Club in 1988. He later shifted to France and won the French League in 1994 and became the top scorer of the 1994–95 UEFA Champions League. He played for other great clubs in Europe such as AC Milan, Ajax, Chelsea, Manchester City and Marseille. He subsequently ended his career with Al-Jazira in the UAE in 2003. At the international level, he represented Liberia at the African Cup of Nations on two occasions.
Throughout his career, Weah proved he was not the ordinary footballer. He is still the one and only player ever to hold the African, European and World awards for the Best Footballer in the same year, 1995.
Weah defeated the outgoing Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, in the first round of balloting in 2005. However, just like in 2017, he did not poll the required 51 per cent of votes in the first round. In the second round in 2015, Johnson-Sirleaf polled 59 per cent of the votes compared to 41 per cent for Weah.
The first African nation to pronounce her freedom from the Slave Trade in 1847 – Liberia – has become the first African nation to prove that football can mean power – in the right hands. On the 22nd of this month, he will become the first-ever world Footballer of the Year to become president of a country.
Whilst playing for Liberia in the throes of the civil war, King George, as he is fondly called, single-handedly picked up the bills of the national football team and almost led Liberia to the 2002 World Cup.
Since joining the political terrain in 2005, George Weah has been taunted for lack of education. He has tried to diffuse that contempt with a Business Administration degree from the DeVry University in 2011 and for good measure added a Master’s degree in Management from the Keller Graduate School of Management in 2013.
The President-elect told newsmen, “For the love of my country and for the love of my people I want to become president in view of what I have already done to change the lives of my people. By being president, I feel can do more. Education alone should not be the caveat for leadership. There are lots of people that went into leadership and they don’t even have a college degree”.
Football can be a powerful political tool. If anyone cares to disagree then just point him or her in the direction of West Africa, particularly Liberia, where Weah has almost dribbled his way into government house.
