George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah is a Liberian politician and former professional footballer who is the incumbent president of Liberia, serving in office since 2018.
57 Facts About George Weah
2.
George Weah played as a striker in his prolific 18-year professional football career, which ended in 2003.
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George Weah is often considered to be one of the greatest players of all time.
4.
George Weah is the first African former professional footballer to become a head of state.
5.
George Weah signed for AC Milan in 1995 where he spent four successful seasons, winning the Serie A twice.
6.
George Weah moved to the Premier League towards the end of his career and had spells at Chelsea and Manchester City, winning the FA Cup at the former, before returning to France to play for Marseille in 2001.
7.
George Weah ended his career with Al Jazira in 2003.
8.
George Weah represented Liberia at the international level, winning 75 caps and scoring 18 goals for his country and playing at the African Cup of Nations on two occasions.
9.
George Weah played an international friendly in 2018, where his number 14 jersey was retired.
10.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest African players of all time, in 1995, George Weah was named FIFA World Player of the Year and won the Ballon d'Or, becoming the first and only player to win these awards while representing an African country internationally.
11.
George Weah became involved in politics in Liberia following his retirement from football.
12.
George Weah formed the Congress for Democratic Change and ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2005 election, losing to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the second round of voting.
13.
George Weah was elected to the Liberian Senate for Montserrado County in the 2014 elections.
14.
George Weah was elected President of Liberia in the 2017 election, defeating the incumbent vice president Joseph Boakai and was sworn in on 22 January 2018.
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George Weah was born and raised in the Clara Town district of Monrovia.
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George Weah is a member of the Kru ethnic group, which hail from south-eastern Liberia's Grand Kru County, one of the poorest areas of the country.
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George Weah was one of thirteen children largely raised by his devoutly Christian paternal grandmother, Emma Klonjlaleh Brown after his parents separated when George was still a baby.
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George Weah attended middle school at Muslim Congress and high school at Wells Hairston High School, and reportedly dropped out in his final year of studies.
19.
George Weah began to play football for the Young Survivors youth club at the age of 15 and later moved to other local football clubs, assuming starring roles for Mighty Barrolle and Invicible Eleven.
20.
George Weah won the Coupe de France in 1991, and he helped Monaco reach the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1992, scoring four goals in nine cup appearances.
21.
George Weah joined AC Milan in 1995, with whom he immediately won the Italian league in 1996 under Fabio Capello, playing alongside Roberto Baggio and Dejan Savicevic in Milan's attack, as well as Marco Simone, on occasion, and finishing the season as Milan's top goalscorer; he won the Serie A title in 1999.
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George Weah finished by rifling the ball into the bottom left corner before an exuberant goal celebration.
23.
George Weah dedicated his FIFA World Player of the Year victory to his former manager, Arsene Wenger, stating that it was thanks to him that he was able to develop into a world class player.
24.
That year, George Weah won the African Player of the Year Award for the third time in his career, and was named to the Onze de Onze by the French football magazine Onze Mondial.
25.
In 1996, George Weah finished second in the FIFA World Player of the Year ranking; he was the recipient of the FIFA Fair Play Award, and was voted the African Player of the Century by sport journalists from around the world.
26.
George Weah was banned from six European matches for breaking the nose of the Portuguese defender Jorge Costa on 20 November 1996 in the players' tunnel after Milan's draw at Porto in the Champions League.
27.
George Weah said he exploded in frustration after putting up with racist tauntings from Costa during both of the teams' Champions League matches that autumn.
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George Weah later attempted to apologize to Costa but this was rebuffed by the Portuguese, who considered the charges of racist insults leveled against him to be defamatory and took George Weah to court.
29.
The most astonishing thing about George Weah is that genius on the field and generosity off it come in equal measure.
30.
George Weah played 11 games in all competitions for City, scoring four times, before leaving on 16 October 2000 after becoming dissatisfied with manager Joe Royle for selecting him as a substitute too frequently; he had only played the full 90 minutes in three of his 11 games for the Maine Road club.
31.
George Weah later played with Al-Jazira in the UAE Pro-League, where he remained until his retirement as a player in 2003, at age 37.
32.
Since making his debut for the Liberia national team against Sierra Leone in 1986, George Weah played 75 games over 20 years, scoring 18 goals.
33.
However, he did help Liberia to qualify for the African Cup of Nations on two occasions: George Weah represented his country in the 1996 and 2002 editions of the tournament, although Liberia failed to make it out of their group both times, suffering first-round eliminations.
34.
George Weah has been named by several media outlets as one of the best players to never play at the World Cup.
35.
One of the greatest African players of all time, George Weah was, like his namesake George Best before him, hamstrung in World Cup terms by hailing from a global minnow.
36.
George Weah returned to the national team for a specially arranged friendly against Nigeria on 11 September 2018, his final international appearance, playing at the age of 51 while in office as the country's president.
37.
Quick, skillful and boasting a powerful physique, fierce shooting power and deadly finishing skills, in his pomp Liberia's 'Mr George Weah' was rightly considered one of the giants of the game.
38.
George Weah was lauded for his speed, work-rate, stamina, and attacking instincts, as well as his physical and athletic attributes, which he combined with his finishing, technical ability and creativity.
39.
At the 2004 ESPY Awards at the Kodak Theatre, Los Angeles, George Weah won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for his efforts.
40.
George Weah has been named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, a role which he has suspended in his political career.
41.
George Weah has tried to use football as a way to bring happiness and promote education for children in Liberia.
42.
In 1998, George Weah launched a CD called Lively Up Africa featuring the singer Frisbie Omo Isibor and eight other African football stars.
43.
George Weah was President of the Junior Professionals, a former football team he founded in Monrovia in 1994.
44.
George Weah was actively involved with youth programs in a Liberian enclave on Staten Island, New York, when he resided there for a time.
45.
George Weah alleged that the election had been rigged through voter intimidation and ballot tampering, and many of his supporters protested the results in the streets of Monrovia.
46.
George Weah then pursued a degree in business administration at DeVry University in Miami.
47.
George Weah remained active in Liberian politics, returning from the United States in 2009 to successfully campaign for the Congress for Democratic Change candidate in the Montserrado County senatorial by-election.
48.
Some analysts saw these moves as preparation for a repeat run for the Presidency in 2011, and George Weah did indeed later announce his intention to challenge Sirleaf in the 2011 election.
49.
George Weah was overwhelmingly elected to the Liberian Senate on 20 December 2014.
50.
George Weah defeated Robert Sirleaf, the son of President Sirleaf, becoming the first Liberian international athlete elected to represent a county in the Legislature.
51.
George Weah was sworn in as president on 22 January 2018, making him the fourth youngest-serving president in Africa, marking Liberia's first democratic transition in 74 years.
52.
George Weah cited fighting corruption, reforming the economy, combating illiteracy and improving life conditions as the main targets of his presidency.
53.
On 29 January 2018, George Weah announced he would seek constitutional changes to allow people of "non-Negro" descent to be citizens and allow foreigners to own land.
54.
George Weah further announced a 2 million dollar emergency fund, part of which was used to purchase DNA-testing equipment for forensic identification of perpetrators.
55.
On 21 February 2018, George Weah made his first official visit outside Africa, to France, meeting French President Emmanuel Macron.
56.
George Weah practiced Islam for ten years before converting back to Christianity.
57.
George Weah holds French citizenship and speaks the French language fluently.