George Weah: African Footballer's 46 Facts

George Weah, a liberian & centre-forward, regarded as one of the greatest African football players of all-time and as one of the best centre forwards of his generation.

001: Full name is George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah.

002: George Weah was born on 01 October 1966, in Monrovia.

003: His nationality is Liberia.

004: The liberia has been playing the centre-forward (i.e. striker) role throughout his professional football career.

005: Regarded as one of the best centre-forward of his generation.

006: Due to his well-known abilities i.e. acceleration, dribbing ability, power (physical strength) and finishing, he has been described by FIFA as the precursor of the multi-functional strikers of today.

007: Regarded as one of the greatest African football players of all time.

008: Weah is regarded as being among the best football players (such as Alfredo Di Stefano and George Best) who never got the chance to play at a single FIFA World Cup.

009: George Weah was regarded as one of the best strikers in the world during his prime in the 1990s, not because he was able to score as many goals as other prolific centre-forwards of his generation. He was lauded due to his known attributes including his work rate, technical ability, creativity, and skill.

010: Weah was a team player who was capable of creating chances and assisting goals for his teammates. Along with Ronaldo and Romario, Weah was seen as a modern, new breed of striker in the 1990s who would operate outside the penalty area and run with the ball towards goal, during a time when most strikers primarily operated inside the penalty area where they would receive the ball from teammates.

011: He has been nicknamed "King George", mainly due to his three time African Footballer award and because he was the first African to receive the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1995.

012: Former Arsenal football player Christopher Wreh is George Weah's cousin.

013: Weah has been named the African Footballer of the Year in 1989, 1994 and 1995.

014: The major awards George Weah has won: 1995 France Football Ballon d'Or, 1995 Player of the Year, and 1996 FIFA Fair Play Award.

015: Weah was the first african to win the World Footballer of the Year (mainly due to his performances for AC Milan in his debut season in 1995).

016: George Weah was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players by the 3 times FIFA World Cup winner Pele.

017: In 1996, he was named African Player of the Century.

018: Represented the Liberia national football team, and played 23 times in FIFA's World Cup qualifiers with 10 wins, 3 draws and 10 losses. In the process he scored 6 goals.

019: He has never played in any FIFA World Cup finals, as Liberia national team have never qualified for any.

020: George Weah represented Liberia at the African Cup of Nations on two occasions in 1996 and 2002, but Liberia failed to make it out of their group both times.

021: He played a total of 60 matches for Libera over 20 years, scoring 22 goals.

022: He moved to Milan in 1995, and he spent 4 seasons with the San Siro Club.

023: The highest single transfer fee (Euros 6.9 million) occurred in his professional football career when he moved from Paris Saint Germain to AC Milan in 1995.

024: He has won 2 Serie A titles for Milan in the 1995-1996 and 1998-1999 seasons.

025: George earned legend status at AC Milan (while he played for them and won them the Serie A title in the 1995-1996 season), however he grew up wearing a Juventus shirt (who are Milan's rivals) and has always been a fan of Juventus. He fell in love with Juventus due to the influence of Michel Platini.

026: While playing for Milan at San Siro, he scored a stunning solo goal when he picked up the ball from just outside of his own penalty area, and ran the length of the field against Hellas Verona by going past 7 opposing players.

027: The year (1995) when he joined Milan, the club coach was Fabio Capello.

028: During his spell with Milan, Weah had chances to play alongside Roberto Baggio and Dejan Savicevic in attack. On some occasions, his striking partner was Marco Simone.

029: Weah finished as Milan's top scorer in the 1995-1996 season.

030: The Milan side he played, reached the 1998's Coppa Italia final.

031: During his spell with AC Milan, he finished as runner-up in the Supercoppa Italiana on two occasions (i.e. 1996 and 1999).

032: AC Milan's best results in Europe during Weah's spell was a quarter-final finish in the 1995-1996 UEFA Cup.

033: George Weah scored a total of 58 goals in 147 matches for Milan.

034: Weah was seen as the direct successor to club legend Marco van Basten when he joined Milan, mainly due to him being a fast, powerful, and physically strong player.

035: He moved to Paris Saint Germain in 1992, and he won Ligue 1 title in the 1993-1994 season, and Coupe de France in 1993 and 1995.

036: George Weah became the top scorer of the 1994-1995 UEFA Champions League with 7 goals while reaching the semi-finals.

037: He scored a skilful individual wonder-goal against Bayern Munich in the group stage in the 1994-1995 UEFA Champions League.

038: He was brought to Monaco by Arsene Wenger in 1988.

039: He spent a total of 14 years of his professional football career playing for clubs in France, Italy and England.

040: In his entire professional football career, George Weah has accumulated to only a total of Euros 13.55 million in transfer fees.

041: He moved to England and played for Chelsea and Manchester City towards the end of his career.

042: He moved to play for Marseille in 2001 after ending his spells in the English Premier League.

043: Weah moved to his last club Al-Jazira in 2003.

044: George Weah retired at the age of 37 after playing for his last club Al-Jazira in the UAE Arabian Gulf League.

045: One fan describes: "Weah is, you would have to say he was Drogba and Eto'o combo, because he had the power and strength of the Ivoryan, the shooting ability from distance, and was very good in the air. Then he was just about as quick as Eto'o and was more skilled than the Cameroonian though Eto'o was a better finisher."

046: One fan who used to watch George Weah's matches in Serie A describes: "I remember him for his amazing performances against the best defenders in Seria A such as Thuram, Koeman, and Aldair. Those guys could not stop him. One time Thuram had completely marked out Ronaldo the week before but had no answer to Weah's trickery".

Mighty Barrolle

• Liberian Premier League: 1985–86
• Liberian Cup: 1985–86

Invincible Eleven

• Liberian Premier League: 1986–87

Monaco

• Coupe de France: 1991

Paris Saint-Germain

• Ligue 1: 1993–94
• Coupe de France: 1992–93, 1994–95
• Coupe de la Ligue: 1995

AC Milan

• Serie A: 1995–96, 1998–99

Chelsea

• FA Cup: 1999–2000