People think I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth but I’ve fought hard for all I’ve achieved
FOR ALL BREAKING SPORTS NEWS VISIT
FOR Timothy Weah, life as the son of a footballing icon — the 25th president of Liberia no less — brings certain expectations. People make some casual assumptions.
Leaning forward to make himself clear, Celtic’s newest signing is keen to put a few things straight.
‘People believed that I was fed with a silver spoon in my mouth, but I fought for everything that I have,’ he said.
‘Going to BW Gottschee to Red Bull to PSG to Celtic, I fought for that.
‘I guess I would use one word to describe myself: determined. I don’t really like to give up a lot. I’m a hard worker.
‘My dad is not on the field playing for me. It’s hard, you know, having a father who’s done what he’s done.’
For those unaware of his pedigree as a footballing blue blood, a résumé.
Dad George Weah played for Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan, Chelsea, Manchester City and Marseille.
Named by Pele in a list of the 100 greatest living players, he remains the most decorated African footballer of all time. His career ended in 2003 with a FIFA World Player of the Year award and a Ballon d’Or and, by common consent, he remains the finest footballer never to grace a World Cup Finals.
When the football was over, Weah senior entered politics and rose to the office of Liberian president last year. His Jamaican wife, the first lady of Liberia, sat in a Dubai hotel yesterday keeping a maternal eye on one of her brood as he casually swatted aside questions about his famous father with patience and a maturity verging on the unerring.
‘Being an 18-year-old “football player” — among the best 18-year-olds in the world, as some people might say — there are temptations,’ said young Weah.
‘There are girls, there’s going out to parties, there’s doing this, there’s doing that, there is drinking and blah, blah blah.
‘But at the end of the day it all comes down to maturity and what you have to do as a man to reach that next level. You have to be disciplined and make sacrifices.
‘Even if you are the type of person that wants to party all the time, you can’t, because your sport is important.
‘If we didn’t have this, we’d be in school doing regular stuff. So you should look at this as a blessing, being able to do something you love.’
While the football is fun, it can’t be easy giving thanks when every question revolves around his father. For the offspring of footballing superstars, a surname can feel at times like a curse. Asked if he ever feels that way, Weah shakes his head.
‘No. No, no, no. It’s a blessing. I would say it’s a blessing because for me as a player it pushes me to be better and to live up to that name,’ he said.
‘I feel like God blessed me with this name for a reason and it’s up to me to put two and two together to become the player I can be.’
Retaining an air of humility is a tough gig when your father is both a footballing genius and the president of his country.
Somehow, Weah junior — a United States international who could also have played for Jamaica, Liberia and France — manages to pull it off.
Born in New York, he moved to Paris at 14 and became the first player born in the noughties to earn a senior cap for the USA when he made his debut against Paraguay, scoring his first goal against Bolivia in May.
His father’s life is one of limousines, government summits and security. Tim — he prefers to be known as Timo — prefers football talk to affairs of state.
‘I don’t look at all that other stuff. I don’t have security. My parents do,’ he said.
‘I live like a normal 18-year-old playing football in Europe. I try to keep my life fairly simple.
‘That’s important to me. Staying humble is really important: being humble, praying to God, being faithful, all that stuff will help me in the long run.
‘That’s the lifestyle that I like to live. I don’t know if other people like to live like that, but I do.’
He played in Scotland once before, netting the winning goal when PSG beat Celtic’s development team 3-2 in a UEFA Champions Youth League game in Dumbarton.
‘The defender was so many feet bigger than me and I managed to jump over him and score...’
This ability to scale heights and confound expectation has become a way of life. Yet, after an explosive start, his first-team path was blocked by the most expensive strike force in footballing history.
A six-month loan at Celtic, then, is a valuable part of his development. One day he hopes people start to speak of George Weah as Timothy’s father, rather than the other way around.
‘I’d like to thank my father for opening the doors to so many opportunities,’ he said.
‘You know what he’s done in the past with his career and I’m now at a point where I have the bar set really high, so I just have to work and work and work until I get there.
‘You will always have comparisons, but I’m really ambitious and feel anything is possible with hard work and dedication.
‘Hopefully, one day I’ll get there. If I don’t, I’ll still 100-per-cent know that I gave it my all.’
At PSG, he changed side by side with right-back Thomas Meunier. On the other side of the Belgian international, at least one team-mate understood how it felt to grow up with a footballing father.
Neymar Senior passed down the lessons of his own career to his significantly more famous offspring. After high-profile run-ins with Scott Brown and Anthony Ralston, the Brazilian superstar is neither the most liked nor respected player around Celtic Park. Yet Weah believes his superstar team-mate has an undeserved reputation for petulance and diving, and is simply ‘misunderstood’.
‘Neymar is one of the best players in the world and he’s going to get hit,’ said Weah.
‘He is a target in every game. I guess it’s a form of protection for him, not to get injured.
‘I think people can be a bit hard on him but at the end of the day he provides for his team.’
There are no Neymars at Celtic, but Weah used modern technology
to familiarise himself with his new team-mates. He followed them all on Instagram — and on his FIFA computer game.
‘I’ve played as Celtic on the FIFA game to try and get to know the names that way,’ added Weah. ‘Mikey Johnston I know from the UEFA Youth League. I have played against him.
‘(Mikael) Lustig is with Sweden and I’ve watched him. Odsonne Edouard, Olivier Ntcham are here as is Dedryck Boyata, who I know was at Manchester City.
‘So it’s interesting getting to know all these players. It’s also a different type of football and I’m just looking forward to getting started.’