There is no doubt that George Weah is the greatest player in African history. In his thirteen years in European football, Georges Weah has played for Paris Saint-Germain, Milan and Chelsea (also for Manchester City, Marseille and Monaco), won Ligue 1, Serie A (twice) and won the FA Cup. At the same time, he also won the World Footballer of the Year in 1995 – the first African player to receive this honor and the only African player to receive this honor to date. Thesefootballtimes.com author James Kelly tells his great story as "King George.".
Although George Weah's election as president of Liberia can be regarded as the greatest achievement of his life, as a player, he has also done an easy to overlook, but equally great thing. In 2002, Liberia was in an environment of dictatorship and civil war, but George Weah united the whole of Liberia and worked for the World Cup dream – although in the end they missed the World Cup final because of a one-point relationship.
Unlike some players from small countries, George Weah is absolutely loyal to his homeland, even though Liberia is nothing more than a poor West African country. Born in Liberia in 1966, George Weah has been passionate about public welfare, with a particular focus on education, physical health and refugee protection. In 1997, George Weah was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In Liberia, people call George Weah "King George", and he is regarded as an icon of the country. George Weah was able to transform the country with football and give the country a chance to "breathe" in his own way.
The story of George Weah begins on April 9, 2000, in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. Liberia helped Liberia win away with a goal from Kelvin Sebwe. Back in Monrovia, liberia shook hands with Chad. While the home game against Chad wasn't a challenging one, the Liberian fans were enthusiastic and waited in line outside the stadium hours before the match began. In the end, the stadium squeezed out twice the capacity of the spectators, and even three fans suffocated in the crowd.
Charles Taylor, then President of Liberia, even threatened officials who did not attend the match, saying before the match: "If any minister does not show up that day, he is asking for trouble." Charles Taylor's words undoubtedly illustrate the importance of this game. At the same time, for this warning of Charles Taylor, everyone naturally cannot take it lightly, after all, it is still necessary to bow to this violent warlord.
After the outbreak of Liberia's first civil war, Charles Taylor took control of the country in 1997 – and in 1989, charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) started a civil war. Despite several mediations by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the international community, and the formation of an interim government in Liberia in 1990, the civil war lasted until 1995, when it was largely over. In July 1997, Liberia held a presidential election in which Charles Taylor was elected with 75% of the vote. However, Charles Taylor was elected more out of fear of the warlord (of course, some people also fantasize that Charles Taylor will be able to "settle down" after he is elected president). According to incomplete statistics, at least 50,000 people lost their lives in this civil war.
After charles Taylor was elected president, the situation in Liberia did not improve, but he became extravagant and the people complained. It is for this reason that, 18 months later, in April 1999, Liberia's second civil war broke out , and the Liberian Union for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) has been trying to overthrow the dictatorship of Charles Taylor. At the same time, the Charles-Taylor administration was under great international pressure for its inhumane approach to dismember enemy bodies and conscript child soldiers.
In addition, George Weah, who has a high status in the hearts of the Liberian people, has also become the target of Charles Taylor's attack - George Weah was received by Mandela after becoming the World Footballer of the Year, and was called "African Pride". The South African leader also encouraged George Weah to participate in politics. In 1996, George Weah also called on the United Nations to send troops to help Liberia maintain peace. George Weah's move also panicked Charles Taylor. In addition, because George Weah was funded by former Liberian President Doe, Charles Taylor sent troops to destroy George Weah's house in Monrovia and raped two of his cousins — although the Charles Taylor government did not claim responsibility for the series of attacks against George Weah, but in the eyes of the public, it was All done by Charles Taylor.
Charles Taylor's series of heart-wrenching moves also had a huge impact on Liberia's World Cup qualifiers. Although Liberia won Chad, their path to the finals was still very difficult, and they also needed to face The African powerhouses Ghana and Nigeria, as well as Sierra Leone and Sudan, two countries ravaged by civil war. As a FIFA-ranked 111th country, few people really expect Liberia to do a miracle.
After a 2-0 loss to Sudan, Liberian coach Philippe Redon handed over his title. After that, George Weah played the role of head coach and achieved amazing results in his first game with the team. Against Africa Cup of Nations runners-up Nigeria in February, although everyone felt that there was no suspense in the match in Monrovia (Liberia lost), in the end, Liberia, led by George Weah, won a surprising 2-1 victory. Former Arsenal player Christopher Wreh scored for Liberia just four minutes into the opening. Although Kanu pulled a goal back for Nigeria, Christopher Wreh scored twice to help Liberia win.
Of course, Liberia had a tough road in the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, because with the start of the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, they had to fight on both fronts. After Monrovia beat Cape Verde 3-0, Liberia beat Mauritius 4-0. In December, however, Liberia lost 2-1 to South Africa in Johannesburg. Another beautiful home game for Liberia was a 5-1 victory over congo, which also won a good position for Liberia's trip to Mali (the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations was held in Mali).
Two weeks later, Liberia is once again focusing on the World Cup in Japan and South Korea, where they will face the mighty Ghana. Although the players threatened to strike over a wage dispute before heading to Accra( the capital of Ghana), they eventually arrived in Accra and defeated Ghana, who was playing at home. Liberian players make the most of their speed during the game, causing great distress to their opponents (Liberia beat Ghana 3-1 away).
In September 2000, Charles Taylor and his ally, the Revolutionary United Forces of Sierra Leone (RUF), engaged in guerrilla warfare in Guinea and Sierra Leone. However, in January 2001 (the month liberians won away to Ghana), Charles Taylor and his allies gradually lost ground, and Guinea and Sierra Leone, with the support of Britain and the United States, began to fight back. At the same time, Charles Taylor's position in Liberia has also been shaken.
As relations between Liberia and Sierra Leone became complicated, they asked FIFA for a postponement of the match on 25 February 2001 for security reasons. However, FIFA did not agree to postpone the game, and George Weah came forward to say that he would protect the Sierra Leone players. He printed a series of T-shirts for players from both teams to use in warm-ups (the T-shirts read "Football unites"). Banners reading "Liberia-Sierra Leone Peace" were also hung on the pitch. In the end, Liberia defeated Sierra Leone with a goal from Zizi Roberts.
The "Lone Star" on the Flag of Liberia symbolizes that Liberia is the first independent Western-style republic in Africa, and this "Lone Star" also seems to symbolize the appeal of George Weah in Liberia. Although George Weah was at the end of his career when he led Liberia to the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, he remained key to the national team.
George Weah's influence on the Liberian national team is by no means simple on the field. In the first civil war, George Weah not only led the team forward, but also provided sufficient financial support for the team - he helped the team pay for the corresponding facilities and equipment, as well as the cost of playing away games. In addition, 10 of Liberia's 25 players, assisted by George Weah, have signed contracts with European teams, and he has paid for airfare to Europe for these players. In 1996, George Weah has become the "talisman" of Liberia, in the African Cup of Nations in South Africa, although Liberia's results are not ideal, but because of the unique charm shown by George Weah, this tournament is still a huge leap for the troubled Liberian football.
When Liberia qualified for the 2002 Fifacé, the squad had not changed much. Along with George Weah for Liberia were former Lyon and Nice forward James Debbah, Christopher Wreh, who played for Arsenal, as well as penalty experts Sebwe and Joe Nagbe, and later Major League Soccer All-Star Darlington. Speaking of which, the Liberian national team players can really be said to be "from all over the world", some of them doing business in Malaysia, Oman and the United States, and some free agents.
In April 2001, George Weah scored his first goal in the World Cup qualifiers to help the team win 2-0 at home to Sudan. Before Liberia's victory over Sudan, Sierra Leone was 1-0 Nigeria, which meant that with three games left, Liberia was at the top of the group, three points ahead of Sudan and five points ahead of Nigeria. After the victory over Sudan, George Weah was very excited: "We have a fairytale performance and I think my World Cup dream can become a reality. ”
However, after the victory over sudan, Liberia's progress has also slowed down. They lost 2-1 to their opponents in their match against Ghana on 3 July. Nigeria, on the other hand, beat Sierra Leone 4-0 – at a time when Liberia slipped to second place in the group and Nigeria rose to number one in the group. In the final round, Liberia and Nigeria both won a draw, and finally missed the World Cup finals with a one-point difference. Later, George Weah said: "Frankly, we shouldn't have been given tickets to the World Cup finals. But Liberian football has made progress. ”
Although Liberia has a ticket to the World Cup finals, they have risen to 66th in the record FIFA World Rankings and they have qualified for the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations finals – but Liberia's performance in this African Cup of Nations is really not ideal.
Because the team did not perform well in the African Cup of Nations, Charles Taylor also decided to "kill the killer" of the national team - although Charles Taylor was rapidly losing control of his own control at home at this time, he still made this decision. But the same month he made this decision, because of the dominance of the LURD in the civil war and the emergence of a second resistance group in southern Liberia, Charles Taylor declared a state of emergency in Liberia, and announced his resignation in August 2003 to negotiate peace – after Charles Taylor went into exile in Nigeria, Interpol issued a global wanted notice, and in 2006 captured Charles Taylor and extradited Liberia. The new president, Alan Johnson-Sirleaf, convicted Charles Taylor in 2012 and sentenced him to 50 years in prison.
Alan Johnson Sirleaf handed the baton to George Weah this year. The president-elected George Weah is liberia's first truly popular president since 1944 – on January 22, 2018, George Weah was officially inaugurated as Liberia's president. But for the past 30 years, King George has been the leader of Liberians.
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