George Weah

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George Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah (born October 1, 1966 in Monrovia) is a Liberian politician and former football player. In 1995, he was named FIFA World Player of the Year (he is the only African to have won this coveted title), European Footballer of the Year, and African Footballer of the Year. He is widely considered the best African player of all time. Weah has since become a humanitarian and political figure in Liberia, and is running in the 2005 presidential election.

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Personal life

Weah was born and raised in the Clara Town slum of Monrovia. He is a member of the Kru tribe, which hails from south-eastern Liberia's Grand Kru County, one of the poorest areas of the country. His parents were William T. Weah, Sr. and Anna Quayeweah. He was raised largely by his paternal grandmother, Emma Klonjlaleh Brown. He attended middle school at Muslim Congress and high school at Wells Hairston High School. Before his soccer career allowed him to move abroad, Weah worked for the Liberia Telecommunications Corporation as a switchboard technician.

Weah has received a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Management from Parkwood University in London. This school was later decried as a diploma mill and closed by the US Federal Trade Commission, in collaboration with the British government. Also, in 1999, he received an Honorary Doctorate in Humanity from the A.M.E. Zion University College in Liberia.

He is married to Clar Weah, a Brooklyn native of Jamaican origin, and is the father of three children: George Jr., Martha, and Timothy George.

Football career

On the club level, Weah has played for Invincible Eleven in his native Liberia, Tonnerre Yaoundé in Cameroon, Monaco, Paris Saint Germain, and Olympique Marseille in France, AC Milan in Italy, Chelsea and Manchester City in England and Al Jazeera in the United Arab Emirates. He won the French league with PSG in 1994 and the Italian league with Milan in 1996 and 1999.

As successful as he was at club level, Weah was not able to bring over that success to the Liberian national team. He has done everything with the squad from playing to coaching to financing it, but Liberia failed to make a single World Cup, falling just a point short in qualifying for the 2002 tournament.

Humanitarianism

Weah is a devoted humanitarian for his war-torn country. At the 2004 ESPY Awards, he won the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for his efforts. Weah was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. He has also been named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, a role which he has suspended while he pursues a political career.

Soccer and children

Weah has tried to use soccer as a way to bring happiness and promote education for children in Liberia. In 1998, Weah launched a CD called Lively Up Africa featuring the singer Frisbie Omo Isibor and eight other African football stars. The proceeds from this CD went to children's programmes in the countries of origin of the athletes involved.

Weah is President of the Junior Professionals, a soccer team he founded in Monrovia in 1994. As a way to encourage young people to remain in school, the club's only requirement for membership is school attendance. Many of the young people, recruited from all over Liberia, have gone on to play for the Liberian national team.

Political career

Although he had denied interest in a politics during his soccer career, in mid-November 2004, Weah announced his intention to stand in the October 2005 presidential election, having previously been the subject of a petition urging him to run; he received a hero's welcome upon his arrival in Monrovia in late November and is widely considered a favorite in the election. His eligibility was initially questioned due to debates over his citizenship (Weah having allegedly adopted French citizenship whilst at PSG; he has also lived in The Bronx for many years now) but he was officially confirmed on 13 August 2005 as the candidate for the Congress for Democratic Change when the election commission published its final list. Without a mandate of 51% on the 11 October elections, the election will go into a run-off between the two leading candidates. The run-off vote will take place on 8 November, and will pit Weah against former World Bank employee and finance minister, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Politics

Much of Weah's politics are influenced by the recent Second Liberian Civil War. Starting in 1999, the conflict came to a conclusion in 2003 when the United States stationed a Marine Expeditionary Unit with 2300 Marines offshore while Nigeria sent in peacekeepers as part of a Economic Community of West African States force, forcing President Charles Taylor to resign on August 11, 2003 and flee into exile in Nigeria. As a result, all of the candidates have pushed for the politics of peace. Weah has repeatedly emphasized the need for UN's peace mission in his country, known as UNMIL, to stay at least through the end of his first presidential term of office.

Weah's lack of experience and of a prestigious college degree have weighed heavily against him during the campaign. Opponents believe that Weah will be manipulated if elected. One positive aspect of Weah's lack of experience is the fact that he was not involved in that conflict. However, some people see little risk in Weah becoming corrupt, as the soccer star is already quite wealthy.

Weah has also promised to bring low cost housing to the countryside, where people often live in houses. Weah has talked about the need to bring electricity, running water, and better education to these areas, areas where he lived for some time in the 1970s.

He has also called for the president's term in office to be reduced to four years from six.


Preceded by:
Hristo Stoichkov
European Footballer of the Year
1995
Succeeded by:
Matthias Sammer
Preceded by:
Romário
FIFA World Player of the Year
1995
Succeeded by:
Ronaldo

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