The story of the life of the African legend George Weah

Speaking of the best African footballers of all time, there are certainly many names that emerge. Samuel Eto'o, Didier Drogba, Roger Milla or George Weah. Everything can be true based on certain criteria.

Africa Ranking in 2017, like BeSoccer, places Samuel Eto'o in the top spot. Behind him, then George Weah. However, there is one interesting thing in the discussion about Weah. They call the former Liberian striker Africa's first superstar.

George Weah really never take part in the World Cup. He also never brought the Liberia national team triumphed in the African Cup. However, their work remains special. In 1996 IFFHS even established him as the Best African Footballer of the Century.

Born with the name George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah, this man from Liberia has a career that is somewhat unique. The public has known him as one of the best footballers in the world. Now, he stands in the highest seat as a president.

Following his career at Young Survivors Claratown, young Weah is slowly knitting his dream of becoming a world player. Until in the end, AS Monaco was willing to recruit him in 1988. That was the initial momentum of his football in Europe.

Fruit of Wenger fad

The story of Weah in Europe cannot be separated from the figure of Arsene Wenger. Without the "fad" the coach nicknamed The Professor, maybe the world would never know George Weah as a powerful striker.

"A friend of mine works in Africa. I asked if he saw a great striker. He recommended George. Then, I told someone to monitor him. We then brought George with 50,000 pounds, "Wenger recalls on the official Arsenal website.

The striker did not necessarily simply appear. Coming to Monaco, he had a difficult start. However, Wenger's remarks became its own tonic. "It took him a while to adapt, but he was very ambitious, talented, and very diligent," said The Professor.

That was recognized by Weah. "One day, I felt quite tired of training and told him (Wenger) that I had a headache. He said to me, ‘George, I know this is hard. However, you need to work hard. I am sure, with your talent, you can become one of the best players in the world. ', "He explained to the Daily Post in 2017.

Wenger's words come true. Slowly but surely, he becomes a phenomenal striker that scares everyone. An observer of homeland football, Prince Siahaan, once called Weah at that time like Lionel Messi at this time.

That's not lip service. Weah had done something similar to Messi, and Diego Maradona. That was scoring goals with a solo run from his own area. In fact, Weah is more powerful because dribbling from the Milan penalty box when breaking goal Hellas Verona in the 1996-97 season.

The First Non-European to Win Ballon d'Or

George Weah is also a history maker. At the Ballon D'Or, he was recorded as the first non-European player to be the best. It was inscribed in 1995, the year he left Paris Saint-Germain to AC Milan.

It is true, the deadly Liberian striker benefited from a system change. That year, for the first time non-European players were included in the election. However, still, without great performance, he would not be able to be above Juergen Klinsmann, Jari Litmanen, and Alessandro Del Piero.

His success at Ballon d'Or is certainly not luck. That's because he was also named Africa's Best Player and FIFA Player of the Year. To date, Weah is the only African player to have won Ballon d'Or and was named FIFA's Best Player.

Weah was transported to Milan in 1995 with only 7 million euros from Paris Saint-Germain. He is projected as a replacement for Marco van Basten who has never recovered from a prolonged knee injury. That season, Van Basten was officially released by the Rossoneri.

Unlike Van Basten, Weah has indeed failed to capture Capocanonniere. During the five seasons costumed I Rossoneri, the most goals scored only 13 pieces. However, his duet with Roberto Baggio managed to bring Milan twice champions of Serie A.

Weah's career began to fade in early 2000 when Milan decided to lend it to Chelsea in the winter transfer window. Together with the London club, Weah spent more time on the bench, until his loan spell at the end of the season.

Milan released him for free to Manchester City in the summer of 2000. Six months later, he was released at no charge to Olympique Marseille, who then released him to Al Jazira at the end of the 2000-01 season.

Success in the Political World

After deciding to retire in 2003, Weah made a breakthrough in his career. He ventured to plunge into politics. No half-hearted, he was eyeing the presidency in the 2005 elections with the support of the party he founded himself, the Congress for Democratic Change.

Actually, that was not in Weah's original plan. When hanging shoes, he claimed to be more eager to become a businessman. Although many people proposed him running for president, he firmly said, "I am not a politician!"

However, the grudge against the situation in Liberia cannot be hidden. That could come out of his mouth when he announced his retirement. "I enjoy being a businessman. I will not return to Liberia again. It will not, until there is a change of government. People currently live in fear! " rebuked him at the time.

So he ran as a presidential candidate in 2005. Liberia's political situation was chaotic after the Civil War for four years. Weah's challenge does not stop there. In the general election, he was confronted by a veteran politician, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Not many flight hours in politics became one of the reasons he failed to become president at that time. The citizenship controversy also had the chance to stick out to the public, which caused the electability to be not too superior.

Failing at the 2005 general election, Weah did not give up. After treading the political ladder as a Senate in 2014, he again ventured to become president in 2016. This time, his target was met after surpassing his opponent, Joseph Boakai in two rounds of elections and winning more than 60 percent of the vote.

He was listed as the first Liberian President who came from among athletes. He is determined to fight corruption and improve the level of literacy of the people of the country.

"They say I am not fit to be president because of my educational background. In fact, what Liberia needs is someone who has a leadership spirit and knows well the problems of the nation. One thing I will not do is divide my own nation, Liberia. "

At the 1994 World Cup performance, a country in the Eastern European region managed to surprise the audience through the glorious performance that they presented. Unexpectedly, the national team with the yellow jersey succeeded in stealing the attention by going until the quarterfinals. The team is the Romanian national team.

At that time, the national team squad nicknamed Tricolorii had talented figures like Ioan Lupescu, Dorinel Munteanu, and Petrescu, Gheorghe Popescu, Bogdan Stelea and of course, Gheorghe Hagi. The existence of these players plus the quality they have, makes you not need to doubt if in that era Romania was said to have a Golden Team.

I also believe that if Anghel Iordanescu, coach of the Romanian national team in the 1993-1998 period, would be very grateful for the squad's material at that time. Such privileges are no longer even found Iordanescu in the next two opportunities to train Romania, namely in 2002-2004 and 2014-2016.

From some of the golden generation of the Romanian national team I mentioned above, it is certain that Hagi's name is the most famous. This Sacele-born figure is a representation of a genius midfielder of his time. Hagi is very fluent in playing as a playmaker for the team he strengthens.

His extraordinary vision of playing supported by technique, speed and creativity really makes Hagi a terrible figure because not only is he good at sending assists, he also likes to score goals, many of which are beautiful goals. So it is appropriate if this left-footed figure entered as one of the number 10 best players of all time. Romanian society also gave him the name Regele which more or less means the King.

After adopting the name with Steaua Bukarest in the Romanian League in the late 80's, many top European clubs are interested in Hagi such as AC Milan and Bayern Munich. Unfortunately, Romania at that time was in the grip of the communist government led by Nicolae Ceausescu rejected all offers that came to him.

Hagi's inaugural European adventure only arrived after the 1990 World Cup after he was carried off by Spanish giants, Real Madrid, at a price of 4.3 million dollars. A value that is quite fantastic at that time.

However, Hagi's adventures in the country of the matador did not take place smoothly, he failed to present a major trophy for the capital club so that it was then sold to Serie A's bottom-tier team, Brescia. But unfortunately, the inaugural season with I Rondinelle also ended miserably because they have to be willing to be relegated to Serie B at the end of the 1992/1993 season. But through a series of brilliant performances, Hagi successfully brought Brescia promotion back to Serie A the following season.

The action plus a dazzling appearance during the 1994 World Cup attracted the attention of arch-rivals Real Madrid in Spain, Barcelona. Los Cules also brought the main star of Romanian football to graze at the Camp Nou stadium.

But Spain did not seem to be "the promised land" for Hagi. His appearance costumed Barcelona for two seasons was somewhat less successful. This also influenced Hagi to accept the proposal of one of the giant Turkish teams, Galatasaray.

Although always a mainstay of the Romanian national team, Hagi's brilliant performance at new club level really exploded while defending the team nicknamed CimBom. Together with players like Emre Belozoglu, Okan Bad, Umit Davala, Mario Jardel, Bulent Korkmaz, Hakan Sukur and Claudio Taffarel, Hagi successfully awarded Galatasaray with ten championship titles.

The title is in the form of four Turkish League championship titles, each a pair of Turkish Cup and Turkish Super Cup and a continental title in the form of a title for each UEFA Cup and European Super Cup.

After delivering Galatasaray to the European titles mentioned above, Hagi decided to hang up his boots. April 24, 2001, in a match called Gala Hagi, the figure nicknamed as Maradona of Carpathia ended his professional career as a player.

Even so, Hagi couldn't really let go of his life from football. Only a few months after hanging up his boots, Hagi returned to the field even though with a different status, namely the coach. The Romanian national team summoned the legend to become a gush after being left by Ladislau Boloni.

But unlucky for Hagi, his career was running very short due to failing to deliver Romania to the 2002 World Cup so that the Romanian soccer federation, FRF, chose to fire him.

However, Hagi's desire to become a coach did not seem to recede even though his first experience went very bitterly. Tit for tat when the Turkish club, Bursaspor, offered him the post of coach ahead of the 2003/2004 season.

However, the first 12 matches in the Turkish Super League that Hagi went through with the team nicknamed Yesil Timsahlar went very, very badly. Bursaspor only won two matches while the other ten parties ended in four draws