Daily Mail

Football legend Weah is new Liberian leader

- By Christian Gysin

FORMER world footballer of the year George Weah was last night elected president of Liberia.

He defeated vice president Joseph Boakai with 61.5 per cent of the vote, based on 98.1 per cent of ballots cast.

It means Weah, 51, will succeed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as the west African country’s president next month, in what will be Liberia’s first democratic transition since 1944. Weah, who played for Monaco, Paris Saint- Germain, AC Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City, had been the favourite to win the poll.

He is the only African ever to be named FIFA World Player of the Year, in 1995. He ran unsuccessf­ully for president in 2005. But opponents claimed his lack of a formal education, including not having attended a recognised university, would handicap his ability to lead.

Weah has claimed to have a BA degree in sports management from Parkwood University in London. But critics accused Parkwood of being an unaccredit­ed ‘diploma mill’. Weah also later said he was hoping to take another degree with the DeVry University in Miami.

Weah stood as a vice-presidenti­al candidate in the 2011 election before running successful­ly for the senate three years later and he was elected officially on December 20, 2014.

He was born in the Liberian capital of Monrovia and has three children.

 ??  ?? Player of Year: George Weah
Player of Year: George Weah

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom