George Weah
| ● The file | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1966, Monrovia, Liberia |
| Golden Balls | 1 (1995) — first winner of the open era |
| FIFA World Player | 1995, the same year |
| President of Liberia | 2018–2024 |
In 1995 the Ballon d'Or opened to the world, and the world's first winner was a striker from Clara Town, Monrovia — a district with no running water, where he had learned the game barefoot. George Weah's year at Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan was a study in unstoppable momentum: power, pace and a finisher's cruelty, all deployed by a man who played the game with visible joy, and a famous coast-to-coast goal for Milan in 1996 that began in his own penalty area and ended, three touches later, in devastation.
He funded the Liberia national team himself for years, player and kit-man and travel agent. In 2017 — two decades after the Ballon d'Or — he was elected President of Liberia by a landslide, the only professional footballer in history to become a head of state. Arsène Wenger, who discovered him, and Pelé, who celebrated him, both got the verdict in first: the greatest African player of the century.