George Weah

Biography

George Manneh Oppong Weah was born in Monrovia in 1966 and grew up in the Clara Town slum, raised largely by his grandmother. After starting out with Liberian clubs and Tonnerre Yaoundé in Cameroon, he was brought to Europe by Arsène Wenger at Monaco in 1988. He went on to Paris Saint-Germain, where he won the French league, and to AC Milan, where he won two Serie A titles, before spells at Chelsea, Manchester City, Marseille and Al Jazira, retiring in 2003.

In 1995 he was named FIFA World Player of the Year and won the Ballon d'Or, the only African to have done so, and he was later named African Player of the Century. He won 75 caps for Liberia.

In retirement he founded the Congress for Democratic Change and ran for president in 2005, losing the runoff to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; in 2011 he was the running mate of Winston Tubman. He was elected senator for Montserrado County in 2014, and in 2017 he beat Vice President Joseph Boakai to become president, taking office in January 2018. Boakai defeated him in a close rematch in 2023, and Weah conceded peacefully.