GEORGE
WEAHa UEFA Cup quarter-final triumph in 1992-93.
PSG beat Real Madrid 4-1 to overturn a 3-1
first-leg deficit, before losing to Juve through
three goals from Roberto Baggio, who’d form
a great partnership alongside Weah at Milan.
Inevitably, with Weah the competition’s top
scorer, PSG found themselves in a Champions
League semi-final. It was 1995, and it would
be the Liberian’s annus mirabilis.AFRICA’S BALLON D’OR
For a player whose game wasn’t defined by
goals, Weah executed every kind of stellar
finish. In one-on-ones, he’d preface his dink,
poke or finesse with a subtle pause, as if to
steady himself, wrong-foot the keeper and
assure the ball that it’d soon be safely home.
From range, he’d launch blistering surface-
to-net missiles, their fierce power emanating
from the beauty of a clean strike. He headed
the ball with accuracy and implausible force,
and he combined tenacity with close control
to wriggle out of tight spaces: one mesmeric
goal saw Weah surrounded by four Auxerre
defenders, only to vibe his way through, get
to his feet and nonchalantly flick the ball
beyond the keeper.
PSG’s 1994-95 Champions League season
served as Weah’s de-facto video CV. They
won all six group-stage games and he found
the net in five of them, including a late winner
at Bayern’s Olympiastadion that showed his
sublime skill. Following good hold-up play on
a shoddy surface, the striker played a one-
two and derisively dragged the ball sideways
past a prone Thomas Helmer as he hopelessly
tried to grab Weah’s ankle, then darted past
Jorginho’s tackle, jinked inside Mehmet Scholl
and unleashed a rocket past Oliver Kahn. It
was unstoppable. He was unstoppable. Two
weeks later, Weah netted a ridiculous double
against Spartak Moscow. His first goal was
another Thor’s Hammer, thrown in from 25
yards; the second, a dribble that floored the
same defender twice.
A quarter-final against Johan Cruyff’s Barça
would provide a sterner test. Theoretically,
anyway. In front of 115,000 fans at the Camp
Nou, Weah had Albert Ferrer on toast and
equalised from a free-kick he’d won by giving
the hapless right-back twisted blood. In the
second leg, Weah didn’t score – he just ran
Ronald Koeman ragged, hit the bar, pressed
the Catalans’ defence, created a number of
opportunities and made the space for Vincent
Guerin to drive home PSG’s winner.
Milan liked what they saw even as they beat
PSG in the semi-final. After Weah lifted the
inaugural Coupe de la Ligue and a third Coupe
de France, the Rossoneri took him to Serie A,
land of unbreachable defences. The 28-year-
old scored just seven minutes into his debut
at Padova, before assisting the winner with
a sublimed chipped pass to play a one-two
with – wait for it – a rampaging Franco Baresi.
Weah’s son, George Jr, was celebrating his
eighth birthday (future USA forward Timothy
would be born in Brooklyn five years later), so
consider that kid’s thunder stolen.
The new signing was immediately Milan’s
clutch player. Eight weeks in, Fabio Capello’sFrance for the second time in their history.
No need for charity this time: they positively
cantered to the title, losing only one game
after August, powered by the goals of David
Ginola and Weah.
Weah always boasted a better strike rate
in Europe than in league football, and his
continental showings stood out despite his
four PSG trophies all coming at home (he left
shortly before their 1996 Cup Winners’ Cup
triumph, which remarkably represents half
of all European honours ever won by French
clubs). In three campaigns, Weah scored in
the back yards of Barcelona, Juventus and
Napoli, as well as home and away against
Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, including
FourFourTwo June 2022 49It’s impossible to escape George Weah
in the nation of his birth. Just ask Peter
Butler, the Halifax-born ex-journeyman
midfielder who is currently in charge of
the Liberian national team.
Butler resides in a house owned by the
country’s current president and, though
the pair don’t exactly sit down together
and discuss tactics over a glass of red,
the 55-year-old tells FFT that Weah is an
omnipresent figure in Liberian life.
“It’s every kid’s dream to emulate him,”
he explains to FFT. “George Weah was
a football icon in Africa and massively
respected. We could do with him now, to
be honest – our current top scorer has
five international goals! I’ve been getting
lads from overseas who are eligible to
play for Liberia – players in their early 20s
and could have 10 years ahead of them.
“Trying to emulate someone like George
is a tough task, however. I occasionally
see him in person but his face is all over
the country. You can’t avoid the fact that
he’s the most recognisable man in Liberia.
He’s still probably the most recognisable
footballer in the whole of Africa.”
Butler, who was a midfielder for Notts
County when Weah was embarrassing
opposition defenders and winning the
Ballon d’Or with Milan, took on the job
back in 2019, shortly before the onset of
a pandemic that has done little to help
improve the fortunes of either Liberia’s
national team or the country at large.
Liberia’s hopes of making it to a first
ever World Cup finals ended in November,
when Butler’s team came third in their
qualifying group behind Cape Verde and
Nigeria. Their two victories were against
Central African Republic, who finished
bottom. Despite that disappointment,
Butler says it’s his job to lay a foundation
to help move Liberian football forwards.
“My job wasn’t to qualify [for the Africa
Cup of Nations or the World Cup] – it was
to make a positive impact,” he says. “We
just don’t have the finances – the country
doesn’t spend loads on football because
they don’t have that kind of money.
“There are bigger issues to try to tackle.
We’re trying to create an identity. Could
European football do a bit more to help
Liberia? Undoubtedly. Europe has pretty
much bled the continent dry for its talent
and not given a whole lot back in return.
“You can only achieve success in Africa
if you’ve got money and backing. It’s so
hard for countries like us to compete.”
Liberia gave the world Weah, but even
as president he can only take them so far.WEAH: LEADER,
LEGEND... LANDLORD
Liberia’s manager Peter Butler – the
itinerant Halifax native, once of West
Ham, Southend, Cambridge and more –
lives in a house owned by the great...