The former football star, George Weah says he is never proud of the Ballon d’Or award since he won it. According to him, he suffered racism in Europe after the Ballon d’Or award.
“I remember the headline of the front page of La Gazzetta dello Sport in the broad heading the next day, “And oh, the black wins the gold”
Even Milan, they were making fun of me and Africa, repeating at every opportunity, “Did you sell it to buy them bread“?
“Drogba won everything with Chelsea, Eto’o won everything with Barca and Inter, but did they give them gold? No. why? because they do not have the humanity to give gold to black Africans.
Gold is not a ball that is given to the best… Real gold is to be a good-hearted person and does not hurt the feelings of others. The truth is that they own racism but not humanity.”
George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah (born October 1, 1966) is a Liberian politician and former professional footballer who served as the 25th president of Liberia from 2018 to 2024. Before his election for the presidency, Weah served as Senator from Montserrado County.
He played as a striker in his prolific 18-year professional football career, which ended in 2003. Weah is the first African former professional footballer to become a head of state, and the only African Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year winner in history, winning both awards in 1995. He won the African footballer of the year 3 times and is widely considered one of the greatest strikers of all time.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest African players of all time, Weah was named FIFA World Player of the Year and won the Ballon d’Or in 1995, becoming the first and only player to win these awards while representing an African country internationally.
In 1989 and 1995, he was also named the African Footballer of the Year winning the official award twice, and in 1996, he was named African Player of the Century. Known for his acceleration, speed, and dribbling ability, in addition to his goal scoring, Weah was described by FIFA as “the precursor of the multi-functional strikers of today”. In 2004, he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world’s greatest living players.
Weah became involved in politics in Liberia following his retirement from football. He formed the Congress for Democratic Change and ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2005 election, losing to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the second round of voting.
In the 2011 election, he ran unsuccessfully for vice president alongside Winston Tubman. Weah was subsequently elected to the Senate of Liberia for Montserrado County in the 2014 election. Weah was elected President of Liberia in the 2017 election, defeating the incumbent vice president Joseph Boakai, and was sworn in on 22 January 2018. Weah was defeated in a rematch with Boakai in the 2023 election.
