Totally Extra: George Weah - player, president, pioneer

0:00The Athletic FC

0:09Totally extra. Today, Liberian goal. You know that you came and you changed my world. Yes, we're talking George Weyer, player, president, scorer of perhaps the 90s' most famous goal. Where? Where? Where? Where? Where? Where? The man Mandela called the pride of Africa. the man Ali Dia called his cousin. It's King George on this Totally Extra.

0:43Saturday the 17th of January. So glad you could join us. Whenever it is you're catching this, listener, it's a Totally Extra with James Horncastle. Hi, James. Hello, Jimbo. Tom Williams is with us as well. All right, Tom. All right, James. All right, indeed. And joining us from Berlin, Muzo Kongwa of the Stadio Podcast. Muzo! How are you doing, gang? Great to be here. Great to be here. We're so delighted you could join us. Special edition. And you're here, as we all are, to talk about Big George Ware. It's been a while since we've done one of these totally extras, it feels. We had a Boxing Day one, one all about Christmas football.

1:24Just after Christmas, topically enough, there's been other ones on Anelka, Bergkamp, Colombia. If you enjoy this, maybe seek those out. But today, King George and a lot of people writing in on this theme, many of them about a goal that he apparently scored against Verona, one about Ali Dia. We'll get on to all of that and the implications of a man who maybe, for the young 'uns, doesn't quite occupy the position he should. There's a famous quote from Thierry Henry where he says, Mr George, you don't know. Do they know? Do you think, James, do they know who George Ware is? You know what? I think for our generation, I am going to generalize and say that we're more or less all the same age.

2:07Jim, I'm flattering you there. But yeah, of course, like George Ware for our generation, as a striker for me, I have not seen anything like him before in terms of just the complete package. skill, incredible skill when you think about it, just such a nimble player and speed as well, that a year or two later from when he joined AC Milan, you would see maybe the kind of perfection of this, which was Ronaldo, the original Ronaldo. And I kind of put the two of them together. And, you know, as much as Ronaldo Phenomeno has kind of been eclipsed by someone who shares the same name. And I think this is a travesty.

2:52I think Weyer has, you know, people overlook his achievements, really. I mean, to still be the only African player to win the Ballon d 'Or is extraordinary. And, you know, maybe it's recency bias. I think a lot of people, recency bias, but also how the Premier League has become the kind of central focus for so much football discourse that maybe other African strikers like Didier Drogba, for example, are maybe the first players that people reach to when they think of great African strikers. And they don't reach back and remember George Weah. Perhaps his political career as well, the fact that he went on to become president of the United period, meant that there was less focus on his football.

3:39And I interviewed his son, Tim, this time last year. And, yeah, in showing, I showed Tim a couple of goals that his father scored because he scored some very similar ones. Because the great thing about George, as we'll probably get to, is his ability to just, excuse my language, twat the ball from distance and for it to go top corner. And Tim can do that really well as well. I mean, some of his best goals for Juventus have been like that. He's since moved to Marseille. but even Tim was just like just stop showing me my dad's goal yeah it must be weird it must be weird to do the same job as your dad Musa what would you say the folk have to know about George Weyer he was the perfect blend of flair and efficiency like perfect so nothing was wasted you had Alan Boxich obviously who was in a similar vein but I think Weyer was a better finisher you obviously had the Brazilian Ronaldo who I think is the closest in terms of style and I think volume goal scoring.

4:48Weyer was interesting because he didn't score the same volume as Ronaldo even though he had actually quite a similar skill set and I think it's because he took up the most unorthodox position so I think George Weyer basically could occupy the entire defensive line by himself so you saw Milan play games where he would typically score after like five minutes and there's an atlanta he scores in the first like four or five minutes and then base he spends the rest of the game just occupying the entire back four by himself and all ace milan just do is just give him the ball and counter and he just runs it to the corners runs it to the wings like completely selfless pure team player there's a game against venez i think vicenza when he basically has like three assists in like 20 minutes he just goes out and plays right wing for fun and just hooks them and like saw no like it was just about what the team needed and he would get that done but every like you look at all the way as best goals and they're just all typified by complete efficiency and it's never a sense that he's hogging the ball it's like ah like this is the most logical thing to do just like take on four players and rip it in the top corner so yeah that's uh that's the guy even when he took on all the players even when he hogged the ball for the whole 85 yards it seemed like the most logical thing to do well we'll talk about of course that goal a lot of people writing in about that but tom an incredible story james has touched on it a boy born into the most extreme of poverty, becoming the best footballer in the world and then becoming the leader of his country.

6:12As Arsene Wenger said, you have to make a film of it. Yeah, his life is a film, as Wenger said. And it is. I mean, it is the most absurd rags to riches tale. I mean, complete rags, you know, growing up in a shanty town raised by his grandmother after the loss of his father at a young age and emerging from the most improbable background to become the greatest player in the world. And I think back to mid-90s George Weyer. And I remember just for a while, it just being a name that you would hear, George Weyer. I remember not knowing for a while exactly how to pronounce it. Was it Weyer? Was it Weyer?

6:58And at a time when there wasn't a huge amount of football on TV, And tragically, James, growing up in North Wales, we didn't even have access to Football Italia. We had Scoria, thankfully. If we wanted to watch Channel 4, it was on like, you had to press number 8 on your remote control, and it was all a little bit grainy. So I didn't get sort of regular exposure to Weyer, but it was this name, this idea of sort of this incredible striker out there somewhere. And you'd read about him in magazines, and someone would mention him in the playground, or you'd hear about him on the radio. and there was a real sort of mythicism around him.

7:33And you think back to sort of early exposure to Weyer and it reminds me of seeing old footage of Pele, who of course was Weyer's great hero and the reason why he came to be known as King George. And that feeling watching Pele of thinking, this guy looks like he came from the future. This guy looks like he's playing football from 30 years hence against guys you just haven't seen it coming. and Weah was exactly the same thing. And I think in terms of his legacy, it's just slightly unfortunate that he was immediately followed in Italy by Ronaldo, who was very similar, as Musa was saying, and who had that sort of extraordinary, you know, skill level that we'd never seen before in a centre-forward.

8:19But there was a very similar, extremely visceral thrill to watching both of them. Crazy that it is actually 30 years hence now. Coming up this September will be the anniversary of that Verona goal. Crikey. Anyway, all right. Well, we'll talk about George Ware. We're going to have a little look through the Almanac, but first a quick quiz question, as we like to have on Totally Extra. This one's sent in by Duncan Alexander from his sickbed. Get well soon, Duncan. Duncan asks, George Ware was Champions League top scorer in 94-95, when he was still playing, of course, at Paris Saint-Germain, with seven goals.

8:54Can you name the only other African player to be top scorer in a Champions League season? Don't blurt it out because we like to leave the listeners in suspense. But do you know? Well, I've got a guess. All right. Is it surprising, James? I don't know. I genuinely don't. I don't have the answer. I'm hoping that either a producer, Charlie, or producer Jesse is going to text me during the course of this show. Otherwise, we're going to have a very awkward ending. Anyway, suspense. Let's get into the Almanac. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network.

9:38It's the week ending the 17th of January. What has this week in football brought us down the years? Well, in 2002, this was the week that Sir Alex Ferguson let it be known that he was going to retire as Man United manager at the end of the season. However, his wife Cathy not wanting him under her feet. And perhaps the thought of Svenja and Eriksson as his rumoured replacement forced a rethink. He ended up staying for another 11 years, winning six further Premier League titles, five FA Cups and a Champions League. Woof. This week in 2018, saw one of France's most bizarring refereeing incidents ever.

10:15Cuts the of Tony Chaperon.

10:28Tom. Yes, Tony Chaperon, who was refereeing a game between Nantes and PSG, is running alongside the Nantes defender, Diego Carlos, who accidentally bumps into him and sends him falling to the ground. and Chaperon just decides that he's been deliberately pushed to the ground by this player. So he sort of instinctively kicks him and then sets him off. And sends him off. Crazily, so Mbappe is on a wild tearaway break and everybody else is tearing after him, including Diego Carlos and Chaperon. But Chaperon actually runs across Diego Carlos. It's in no way Carlos' fault. But he lashes out at him and sends him off.

11:11He was subsequently suspended, the referee, and apologised. Did he referee much after that, Tom? Do you know what? I think that was basically the end of his career. I think it hastened his retirement. And he was one of France's most celebrated referees. He was kind of the Howard Webb of his time. And yeah, finished his career under something of a cloud. But also, I mean, sorry, but it made him more famous than anything else he would ever have achieved on a football pitch. So, you know. Do you think subconsciously he was seeking it? Like it was existential? You know, the intrusive thoughts. Well, it's like James said, the fact that he ran across Diego Carlos's path, it's like he was trying to draw the foul.

11:48Maybe he knew exactly what he was doing. I think he was trying to insert himself in the narrative. You know, like, think about it. You've never been a protagonist as a referee and you've been on the verge of it your whole life. You're like the supporting cast. You're like peeking out from the curtains. You're like, let me just live. Let me feel the moment. Maybe, Moussa. Maybe that's what Tony Chaperon wanted. Is it a word now in France, like he's Chaperoned it? It's not. It's not. But, I mean, it does cling to him. He works for Canal Plus, so I've worked with him. No! Tony Chappell. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:18How is he? He's a really nice guy. Yeah, he's a very nice guy. And I interviewed him for a piece about dissent against referees in France. I think it was after Paolo Fonseca got his enormous ban last year for squaring up to a fourth official. and it was slightly awkward speaking to Tony Chapon about kind of like referee-player relationships when he is famous for the only referee in recorded history to have actually kicked a player and then sent him off but yeah, he can laugh about it now more or less I must admit, I don't know that it was that deliberate we've all kicked out at inanimate objects perhaps or nearby players, I don't know when you fall, you've hurt yourself you lose, you have that red mist I don't know There's another example actually on this week in football history of Tamura Kitzbier when he scores that goal against Bolton for Newcastle and decides to fully strip in front of the fans, gets his shirt off, then goes for the shoes, but then he's deluged with his teammates and in his frustration begins to kick the advertising hoardings.

13:24It's an iconic moment. Kitzbier trying to get the cross and now Pistone is screaming for it. Gets it. United have plenty of bodies in the box. Among them is Shearer. That's aimed for Shearer. Shearer gets his head to it. Out comes Branigan, gets a touch. And Conspire! He's allowed to walk in. Shearer's touch. And Newcastle are back in front. Well, extremely gestuous from Timurie Conspire. And while he's like mid-rage, I think Alessandro Pistone, who is his teammate, comes over and tries to calm him down. and then just sort of like gives up and shrugs and just like leaves him to it. And funny enough, after the meltdown has subsided, play restarts with Bolton kickoff as is customary.

14:15The ball finds its way to Ketsbier quite quickly and he just boots it straight out of play for a throw-in. He hasn't yet calmed down. It might be a new phase of play, but he still has anger he needs to express, which is the most fantastic little coda to that particular tantrum. Emotions are so complicated, aren't they? This week in the year 2000, George Ware moved to Chelsea, scoring the winner on his debut against Spurs only 90 minutes after having his loan registered. Crikey. And George Ware, as you've heard, is the subject of today's Extra. The life of this guy is a real film. I remember when I saw him the first time in Monaco, coming a bit lost, not being rated by anybody as a player, and becoming after best player in the world, and today become president of his country.

15:10It's an unbelievable story. Unbelievable.

15:28Salici, the first one, Paresi, Paresi, enters in the air, from the left, still in the middle, and the cross, and the goal! Stupendo goal, and the goal is to win! That fell nicely for Fima, Taylor, where he won it rather well. And George Ware, and Chelsea take the lead! He's standing up, and he's standing up, and he's standing up! He's standing up, and he's standing up! He's standing up! He's standing up! He's standing up! He's standing up! He's standing up!

16:05Mr. George, you don't know. George Ware, the man, the legend, the politician as well. A man who, once he hung up his boots, shifted his focus to getting crosses in boxes and in a whole new sense, but proved a huge success at that as well. Tom, his beginnings, you touched on it as a teenager playing for teams in Monrovia, in Liberia Can we just touch on those teams, James? Let's touch on them Because, I mean, they sound like bands Like, you know, he played for Young Survivors Like, you know, that's an album I want to have I want the Young Survivors album Have you got the new one by Mighty Boroli?

16:49Well, no, but I've got the deep cut Invincible 11 Invincible 11. If you guys like Invincible 11, you should check out Bong Range United because they are super... Sorry, have we already had them? No. No, we haven't. We haven't. But I liked them before they were cool, Tom. He was playing for those teams by day and also by day earning his crust as a switchboard technician, famously. So, you know, football was his thing, but it was by no means his career until, age 21, in 1987, he got scouted by a Cameroonian side called Toneri Yaoundé, I think, where he catches the eye of the then coach of the Cameroon national team, Claude Leroy, who contacts his friend, the Monaco manager, a fellow by the name of Arsene Wenger.

17:39And suddenly, George is on his way to Monte Carlo. Tom, pick up the story. Yeah, so he joins Toneri Yaoundé, Youndé Thunder, so another club with a fantastic name. And the way that Claude Loroire tells the story, he turned up to watch a Tonner Youndé training session looking to scout players for the Cameroonian national team. Saw this guy out on the right wing, paced a burn, beating players for fun and thought, great, I'll give him a call up. Only to find out that he was Liberian, but tipped off Arsene Wenger, who gets him flown over to Monaco. and I think, yeah, they paid something like£12 ,000 for him, which is incredible.

18:20Monaco have just won the league title in a team featuring Glenn Hoddle and Mark Hately. And initially when Weyer arrives, he's competing with Hately for the right to partner Glenn Hoddle in that Hoddle sort of plays as an advanced number 10 behind a front man. And initially Hately, having been the guy who scored the goals that won Monaco the title is first choice. But he had loads of injury problems, which opens the door for Weyer. And him and Hoddle strike up this really successful strike partnership. I think Weyer gets 14 goals in the league in his first season. Hoddle scores 18 goals, the most successful goal-scoring season of his entire career.

19:06And Monaco don't win the league that year, but George Weyer's career in Ligue 1 is up and running.

19:25Remarkable. He credits so much of his success there to Arsene Wenger, who says when he first arrived, he looked useless, but he had such desire. This is Wenger talking about Weyer, not the other way around. He looked useless at the start, but he had such desire, such an ambition, such a burning wish to become a star that he made it. Crikey. So he won the Coupe de France at Monaco. Yes, won the Coupe de France in 91 and then Monaco got to the final in 92, but lost. So he spent four years at Monaco in total. And at this point, you know, he is showing what a remarkable thoroughbred of a footballer he is.

20:06one of the most spectacular players in the country. And around about the same time, at Paris Saint-Germain, Canal Plus have taken charge in 1991, starting to splash the cash. So they sign Weyer in 1992, and he goes into a team alongside players like David Ginela, Rayy. And this is the first sort of really great PSG team, one that will subsequently be eclipsed by the modern PSG. But at that time, it was about as star-studded starting XI as French football had ever seen. And Weyer is one of the key figures. Indeed. He's, what, third season there, 94-95. As mentioned, he's the top scorer in the Champions League with seven goals.

20:54Paris Saint-Germain get all the way to the semi-finals. So in that run of goals, in that 94-95 campaign, one of the most famous ones that he will ever score against Bayern Munich.

21:09Moussa,

21:14are you familiar with this goal? Oh my goodness, who isn't? Who isn't? Because it's like two or three things he does in the course of the move that shouldn't be possible. So it's like the brilliant one-two that we see some of the great modern players do, but then it's the change of direction, incredible efficiency to beat one player, and then beating Oliver Kahn at his near post. And the look of disbelief on Khan's face as it passes him is one of my favourite things in football. I generally like watching bewildered goalkeepers' expressions, one of my favourite things. The thing about this season I always have to mention is that Wei I think actually signed with Milan before the semi-final.

21:49And it has weirdly, I think, I'm pretty much sure the conversations have begun long before the semi-final. So it's weird, he has quite a muted semi-final performance against Milan. I don't think it was a divided loyalty question, but I don't think it was particularly easy to play against your future employer. And I think there's a bit of like Berlusconi mind games going on there. Interesting. I mean, it wasn't easy for anyone to play against that Milan side with the back line they had. But there was a 3-0 victory that Milan had which effectively sealed the tie. Ware did nothing. And there were a lot of doubts when he arrived then in the summer in Milan about how much of an impact he was going to have.

22:26Badger was the player everyone was looking out for. Ware had done big things in France, but this was regarded as maybe a step too far by some. Well, Adriano Galliani, the chief executive of Milan, he always tells a story about picking up the phone to the chief executive of Canal Plus, you know, who was running PSG at the time. The guy who was, I think, dating Catherine Deneuve. And so Galliani basically gets himself invited to the Cannes Film Festival to do this deal. And the issue is not between him and Weyer. So Cannes Film Festival is every May. So I don't know if that's before or after the semifinal.

23:09But he gets there. He does the deal with Weyer, but he's got to do the deal with PSG. And the problem with PSG is there's a billion lira between AC Milan and PSG in getting this deal done. And George Weyer says to Galliani, I want to come to Milan so I will split the difference okay so you you take that billion lira out of my salary when I get to AC Milan that's how much I want to go and that's how the deal was done billion lira about 300 ,000 pounds so significant sum yeah and look I mean Milan were going to pay him handsomely because, um, yeah, the way Milan used to do business in those days was, you know, Berlusconi would get French football and the Ballon d 'Or shortlist and, you know, he would run his finger down it, got him, got him, got him, haven't got him, Gagliani, go and sign him.

24:09And, um, and so, yeah, I mean, there's this incredible succession of strikers that they signed who won the Ballon d 'Or so um I think Weyer joins or joins uh maybe days after Marco van Basten sort of tearful goodbye um with with Milan and instantly wins the league you know and scores is Milan's top scorer and yeah I mean you can't take that for granted you know I mean other players had come into that team, Papin, for example, Papin did not have the career at Milan that he had in Marseille. And yet, as Moussa and Tom have said, you could tell it takes a while for Italian defenders to know what they're up against.

24:56They're like, how do I mark this guy? Or do I stand off him? Do I step up? And he does this thing which the Ronaldo, the original Ronaldo does, where he would push the ball past players or entire defences and then just run beyond them and almost fetch the ball himself and get it and then beat goalkeepers. It's amazing how often he uses that and is able to pull it off. That features in the Verona goal, but then what doesn't? Another classic example is the goal against Lazio where this is early December. It's 0-0, final minutes of the game. He gets the ball. there's none of his teammates anywhere near him he's pretty much surrounded by Lazio players first touch sees him hurdle Dario Marco Lin's challenge and then basically he does exactly what you're saying just puts it past Bergodi and Alessandro Nesta just runs around the other side of them and then throw a goal on Bosch Weir slipping it through still George Weir fabulous play what a goal from George Weir a moment to save her from the new African player of the year.

26:11He's had by his very high stand as a quiet match, but exploded then. Also wanted to shout out to the third day of the season, so early days still, when he's up against Roma and Aldair moves out. Aldair's fronting up to him and then all of a sudden, Ware's not there anymore. It's like you see elements of his game and so many of the new... So that move he does against Roma it is like the um the croquette of iniesta does right but it's all that's the thing there's no waste it's like watching a composer like do a perfect draft like there's like no edits needed it's nothing is wasted this is the thing the lazio goal the roma goal and it's like it's not the volume of goals but it's the level it's the type of people he's ticking off so he gets his header against juventus i think it's in a one-all draw away like it and it's like it's always there's an amazing stat like if you look at these stats that he had like one of the highest proportions of goals that equalises or winners out of the total of goals he scored.

27:10It's unbelievable. Like every goal. Yeah, almost every goal he scores matters. It's wild. Crazy. There's one season. I don't know if it's that season or the next one, but it's like if you look at his actual strike rate and the number of goals that are actual winners or equalisers, the proportion is ridiculous. Yeah. The numbers, when you look at just straight numbers, they're not going to leap out of you. For example, that first season with Milan, when they win the title, he scores 11 goals and assists 14 times. You have to factor in, though, this is Serie A in 95-96 when it couldn't be tougher to score a goal.

27:42And as you say, the goals themselves are against some of the toughest people. Around day six of the season, there's a 2-1 victory against Juventus. And it's a beautiful goal. It's a 1-2 with Simone. Those two guys, and this was, I think, a real element of his time at Milan, the bromance that he had with little Marco Simone, always doing more one-twos than a roadie on a mic check. And this is a classic. Worth having a look because it's so neat, so precise, so, as you say, efficient.

28:25Marcus Simone and George Weah, James, that's something that both of them kind of recognised, it was a joy to watch Yeah, and you could see how well they got on off the pitch, on the pitch they spent a lot of time together where we'd stay over at Marco Simone's Marco I think at that time you went to his house didn't you? Yeah, I did I don't know whether he had a spare room or something but Marco Simone's sleeping arrangements were al cuanto strano shall we say that he had a giant circular waterbed um i'm not sure if there was a mirror on the ceiling but uh we'll say there was for the anecdote we'll say there was but he was a he was a young man in a very beautiful apartment in milan and yeah he was you know he built himself the kind of bachelor pad that that he wanted and and somewhere in there possibly on the floor because apparently George liked to sleep on the floor to help his spine.

29:25He would come over and stay. And sometimes apparently play basketball with Simone, which seems a bit of a mismatch. But there you go. But anyway, lovely to see them. There's a great goal as well, another example of the generosity of George and the understanding between the two against Strasbourg, where Marcus Simone hasn't been scoring very much. And Ware, who's largely thrown goal, instead of actually taking a shot himself, basically does a lovely back heel, which sets Simone up instead. But yeah, what a meaner. Marco, big in France too, I think, on some of the recommendation of Weah. I mean, in some respects, followed his footsteps, Monaco and PSG.

30:11I seem to remember when Cristian Vieri went there in 2006, I think, to try and get himself fit in vain for the World Cup. people in Monaco had these they remembered fondly Marco Simone and yeah Vieri did not live up to the Marco Simone billing Simone was a lovely player and a lovely chap as well he says about George Weyer he gave an interview actually this week with Gazetta where he was talking about his time with Milan he said it was a crazy I'm just translating it but he said it was an extraordinary Milan team with Baggio, Savicevic Papa and etc but his favourite was always George Weyer we had a special feeling it we we just knew where each other was all the time whether we were on the field or off it it felt like being in the playground the way we used to just pass the ball between ourselves Robbie Badger used to get really pissed off with it no way that's so funny well actually thought can I just say I thought one of the greatest strengths of Weyer in that team if you look that's still 25 out of the 60 goals he's directly involved in.

31:15And who knows how else are those in the build-up play? And I think the thing that was best about Weyer that season was the chemistry with those attacking players, like Baggio and Cevichovic. Like, it was amazing, like, his ability, because both Baggio and Cevichovic could finish really well. So you'd often see Weyer, like, go out to the left or right wing and just assist them. And he seemed to be equally happy playing left or right wing as he was through the middle. That's the thing. And that's kind of a bit more like a modern forward, I think. he was like a prototype of that even more so than I think the Brazilian Ronaldo I would say Yeah I mean he essentially had three 10s to play with in Badjo-Sevicevic and the often forgotten Paolo Futre He was always injured Paolo Futre He was always injured I think again Galliani liked the fact what he liked about that team was Berlusconi was happy because Berlusconi would always try and impose these tens on whoever was coaching, be it Saki Capello.

32:17And Galliani could at least point to having three in the team or three on the squad that year. But I mean, incredible first season. They only lose three times, don't they? And they're pretty much top after four games, win the league in April, eight points clear of Juventus. and I suppose the curious thing because Milan were very much the team of the late 80s and 90s you could even say the first decade of the 2000s as well and yet they won so much in Europe Saki going back to back in 89 and 90 those Capello teams in the early 90s and yet Weier joins almost too late He wins the league twice in, what, four or five seasons.

33:07But he joins a team that finished fourth and was in the UEFA Cup. They win the league. Capello leaves for Real Madrid. They appoint Oscar Washington Tabares, who Berlusconi thinks is essentially an X-Factor contestant. So San Remo Music Festival. He's just like, you know, who is this guy? He was also a socialist, which I think was a major, was regarded as possibly the biggest sticking point for Berlusconi. Yes, as with others. And so that's a disaster. They finish mid-table. They then bring, I think, Sacchi back and they finish mid-table again. So just not in Europe at all. And then they do hire another socialist in Alberto Zaccheroni.

33:58and they win the league from 10th or 11th place, which I don't think anyone had done since, well, Conte did it recently with Napoli, but that was kind of unheard of. And it's really interesting with, let's say, Man United at the moment or under the Amerim 14 months. Our Man United are three at the back team. Nobody can play three at the back at Man United. Well, AC Milan, who was 4-4-2 as it gets, played three at the back that year with Zaccheroni and they they won the league and again yeah one of for me the great strike partnerships of the late 90s uh George Wern and Oliver Bierhoff just you know yeah float the ball in the box for Bierhoff he'll head it in uh give the ball to George let him run he'll score you know um just glorious well if there had been doubts when he first arrived there soon evaporated we're becoming a massive star i don't know if you ever saw the extraordinary aftershave robert's noir did you ever see this the kind of cologne advert that he did on italian tv mid 90s it is extraordinary it's not only of its time it's of italy in its time so basically he turns up at some fancy restaurant and makes his way through the restaurant to drawing admiring glances from a succession of women along the way.

35:23And finally sits down with a very attractive woman who gazes at him and George says, tutto bene. But the thing is, he's naked the entire time. What? Oh, my goodness. He's naked the entire time. It's very artfully filmed because, you know. I can imagine. Yeah, the watershed and that. Is this online, James? Do you need a VPN to see this? No, it's online. Fine. Roberts Noir.

35:58I've just found the Roberts Noir advert, and it is absolutely incredible. He turns up at the restaurant, so you see him getting ready in front of the mirror, splashing on his aftershave. Then he gets dressed, turns up at the restaurant, dressed in black tie, but then as he walks through the restaurant his clothes disappear and it's only once he's sat down at the table it's really toxic stuff extremely toxic that's basically if you wear this if you wear this aftershave you will you will attract attention as if you were naked as if you were naked and with an extraordinarily chiseled body as well yeah is this is this one of the aftershaves or colognes that you see in anchorman you know when uh ronberg sex panther is that what it's cool well there's around the same time it's either ibrahim bar or george weir get voted sexiest man italian football oh nice by the women of italy yeah but the thing about this is striking is that ibrahim bar comes out and rather than enjoy his own moment of glory he goes i don't know why george is so close to me in the voting george is ugly i mean i'm not surprised george was in the voting ibrahim bar i don't see myself but you know i'm possibly not the target demographic That wasn't anyway the only award that George Weyer won because famously in 1995, he became the first and only man ever to be African Player of the Year, European Player of the Year and World Player of the Year all at once.

37:26The year that he'd had featured, of course, some of those extraordinary goals for Paris Saint-Germain, but also his work at Milan. He dedicated the Ballon d 'Or to his people in Liberia, who at the time were going through such terrible provisions with the succession of civil wars that were going on in the country. His World Player Award he dedicated to Arsene Wenger. This is the man I remember he was. George, work hard, you're going to be a great player. and when I came to Europe he was like a father to me I want him to keep this this is for me but I want him to keep it because he deserves this more than I do Weyer says to Wenger what can I pay him I can't give him cash because he makes money and money can go but the trophy will stay to remind him what he did for a player there you go we've had lots of mail about George Weyer and we'll get on to that next

38:24This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Olly Kay and the very best football writers around. Aklag writes in. Hi, Aklag. He says, what are Jimbo's memories of George in Italy? Was he as big a star as we thought he was from afar? I'll take this one. He was a huge star. and we just talked about the Roberts Noir, but he was as big as it got and the Italians were so delighted that he won the Ballon d 'Or because there was always that huge pride when one of their league picked up the big gong.

39:01At the end of that season, we talked about what a great player he was, but he was such a nice guy. He's in his career, he's been fought for so many things, always seemed to be a little bit on a mission, a real kind of pride and a bearing statesman, statesman-like quality to him. But on the occasions that I met him, he was such a simple kind of humble guy. Sorry, just to jump in on that, James. There was a story from his time at PSG that Vincent Guérin, the former PSG midfielder, tells. They'd be flying back from a game and as the plane was coming into land, Weyer would be asking around to see if his teammates had finished their meals.

39:42And if they hadn't, he would ask if he could take their food. And initially they thought it was because, he just wanted a bit of food to get stuck into during the cab journey home. But they subsequently found out that he would take it back to where he lived. And I think there was a period when he was at PSG, when he was living in Saint-Germain, right in the middle of Paris, and he would hand it out to homeless people. And so that was like a feature of his personality that came through at PSG at a time when he is the most famous footballer in the country and winning league titles and all the rest of it.

40:14That's a beautiful story, Tom. It's rather killed mine, though, I have to say. No, I feel like it led on nicely from yours. So my story was just that, so we go along for the second time because he's become Ballon d 'Or winner. And so we go along and do an interview with him for the Saturday morning Cosetta highlight show. And as such, we do a little sit down on the lawn at Milanello. It's a bit of a kind of golf club type scenario. And we're sat there and it's on a bench under the trellis. I'm sure James knows where I mean. But before that, we do an opening for the show in which, well, this happens.

40:51Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Gazetta Football Italia. As you can see, another very exciting episode this week as we're back with the European Player of the Year, the World Footballer of the Year, Mr. George Ware. George, first of all, congratulations. Thanks. Well, I would like to give you this for having the best voice of sports 1995. The voice of sports 1995 viewers. I don't know what to say, George. Thank you very much. No, forget about it. Just give it to Gary Bloom as soon as you see him. Of course. Ken? Love it. Very good, very good, very good. Also, where with the classic, like, 90s drip?

41:30Oh, yeah? Yeah, he was wearing clothes for this TV appearance, I should say. That's mid, that's like, yes, he was, he was. Yeah, but no, what a sweet guy. What a sweet guy. I hope he still got the award chance. No, I gave it to Gary Bloom.

41:48One or two more messages. Let's see. Somebody wrote in saying, I think it was Matty said, I always think of his red boots. What an iconic look that was. Yes. Neil says, he never had more than 15 league goals a season at PSG or Milan. Do we underestimate his support play? Well, I think, no, we don't, because Musa's already covered that very, very nicely. Here's Sam, one of many people writing in on that goal versus Verona. And while Maria says, do you think he thinks about that goal against Verona every day? Because I would. And Joe says, I still think of it often too. Sam says, I think it's a tad overrated.

42:27Oh, I knew this was coming. Poor defending, exclamation mark. Wow. Well, I think we should take a very good long look, all of us, at that goal and break it down bit by bit. So, heart music, please.

42:45All right, so it's the 8th of September, 1996. It's a hot afternoon in Milan. It's the opening day of the season at San Siro. And it's Milan against newly promoted Verona. Yeah, Rossi and goal are back four. of Panucci, Galli, Costocurta and Maldini. Midfield is Boban, Albertini, Dussay. And you've got Baggio and Ware and Simone. Oh, my word. Oh, my word. Anyway, they're up against newly promoted Verona. They're 2-1 up, 85 minutes gone. And Verona have a corner. Fair to say it doesn't go well for them. Let's start with the corner itself. So the ball comes flying in from I don't know which Verona player.

43:31And George Ware, who's not marking anybody, but he's George Ware. What does he do with the ball that comes in? Do you think they should be marking him on their own attacking corner? Yeah, maybe so. Perfect first touch, though, by the way. Perfect first touch. And then pushes it forward. It's about eight yards from his own goal line, right? Pushes it forward and then just starts moving. and the thing about the bad defending thing the criticism i've watched this goal of course like most of us like it's basically about 14 seconds from the time he gets it to the time he scores it right so there's actually no time to process what this guy's actually doing like most other people would get the ball he's a center forward and at that point like you know this era harry kane would like play a cross field pass or something you're not expected to accelerate so by the time people realize what's happening it's almost too late and he gets to the halfway line i think that's people say the defending's bad but he escapes from that with a pivot yeah he doesn't well before we even get to that so yeah there's the touch to bring the ball down and bring it and take it forward and then he sits off and it's what 40 yards before anybody from Verona has even managed to get in position and then you have the kind of the ambush there's two players who try and tackle him simultaneously while another tries to to to block his his his forward route and when you look at it without really paying attention because it's fuzzy old 90s images it can look like he gets a lucky bounce off the off the defender but as you say he drags the ball and spins with it a roulette or whatever well i mean enough he goes again not not to be not to be oh here we go there he is but i mean i i don't think it i don't think it's bad defending necessarily but he basically gets tackled on the halfway line but manages to drag the ball with him all the same i think that's my one issue with it.

45:21I mean, it is one of the greatest goals of all time, but I think if you're being a purist about it, he gets tackled slash rides a tackle, but then carries on and goes on to score. So it's a minor mark against the quality of the goal, I would say. I would respectfully suggest. As we get to like the halfway stage of this goal I think Moussa right at the beginning said it's 14 seconds from start to finish right so if you think like 100 meter dash or whatever is you know sub 10 is you're getting to yeah gold medal like he's so quick coming out of the box that you can see the Verona players who are sort of nowhere near him they've just I think they're thinking of that moment in time right i need to just run back not not go to him but run back and get in position but he's too quick he's too quick for them to do that so the the first guy who's in camera shots he then makes that calculation right i'm gonna have to come across here so he comes across tries to put the tackle in and in putting the tackle in which we've just talked about and it's the flying the ointment the tom he takes out his own player as well like it In trying to take down George Weah, he stops another Verona player kind of getting close to him.

46:48And then Weah pivots. And I think this is where the goal is magnificent. Because I think everything else from here is... You can't dispute the skill involved. Because again, he does what we talked about. He pushes it past the player. That's wild. Yeah. The only thing I would say is that that was Eugenio Corrini. So it was possibly the easiest part of the entire goal. Oh my goodness, wow, really? Because Carini's not the biggest guy and he's not, I don't think, a particularly natural defender. It was Carini, wasn't it? Yes, it was. Carini was, when he came through at Juventus, he was considered to be a great up-and-coming number six.

47:30Okay, all right. But no, James, I mean, you're right, he's not a defender. And he's certainly not used to maybe having someone bearing down on him at that pace and then just knocking the ball past him. And I'd forgotten actually the finish for this goal. Wild, that's the thing. So you touch on, James, the fact that he's just done 85 yards in under 14 seconds at this point, which is a pretty exhausting thing to do. So Moussa, what happens when he then fronts up to Atilio Gregori? It's just the way he's like, the thing about George White I love most is how upright he is and how early he strikes the ball, right?

48:06And if you see a lot of the goals that Reyes scores, the goalkeeper has got his palms out and hasn't dived yet because Ware doesn't give you a tell. So very often, either he doesn't slow down at all when he strikes or he has a very low backlift. So with this one, it's pretty wild. He's just run all this distance and the finish is so composed. At that point, you might expect him to use momentum to try and maybe go around the keeper to make sure of it. But he just dispatches it from the top of the box. It's unreal. Like this sidefoot finish, top of the box, it's maybe the most impressive part of the whole thing.

48:35And then he runs off to like the right-sided corner flag. and then like embraces someone who's lucky enough to be down there yeah some completely random person yeah it looks like it's some i don't know like his neighbor or a guy who played some major part and he's him growing up it's robert noir

48:56way of sort of stripping nakedness he appears yeah no that didn't happen no uh no but that that entire goal is like fused my memory because I was watching when I was at school like in boarding school in like my in my mid-teens and yeah first game of the season and actually the funny thing about that goal is that a few so the entire game like you know Verona have been quite good actually considering they've made a good game of it and like so Way has been running the whole match this is the thing it's not just like 14 seconds at the end it's the end of a game and there's an amazing moment where a few minutes after he scored the goal he gets the ball again in deep lying position and like the comedy gets excited again because it looks like he's about to try it again it's like it's and and i think he's the thing just to sort of finish this point he's one of the first strikers to make defenders terrified the moment he crosses the halfway line like george weyer changed that like i know that ronaldo did it like for comp against compostela whatever but like i think george weyer was the first modern striker to make defenders terrified from like 50 yards out that hadn't i don't know if that had necessarily happened before in that era.

50:02I think he brought that. And also there's a singularity to that goal because it is literally one end to the other. It is the original coast to coast. You think of all the great individual goals in football history, Maradona against England, Ronaldo are nines, various strikes with Barcelona. I can't think of any other examples of a player running from deep inside his own penalty area into the opposition penalty area and score it. Van der Ven for Spurs? Van der Ven's a great example. True, yeah. Van der Ven. Yeah, but Van der Ven's a great example because you don't think, a defender basically has a period of grace until about like the center circle because you don't think they're going to try it.

50:45So Van der Ven, as incredible as that goal, and I love that goal, one of the goals of the last like few years, right? But the way I think is that he is the guy, right? Anytime that guy receives the ball and the pitch, he should receive heavy supervision. And the fact that like, like it's like it's like Michael Jordan for Michael Jordan to go through traffic and dunk on someone it's different to like like a fifth string player doing it because that player is not expected to get up there and no one's really paying attention Michael Jordan like everyone in the stadium and everyone at home is watching him and he still gets it that's what makes it so impressive I think

51:40Magnificent. Wasn't it? Magnificent. Was that the most famous goal of that decade? Oh, that's a... No, David Beckham's. Really? David Beckham's from the halfway... Which was actually, that's say, it was only a week or two before, I think. I think the word goal is more famous. I mean, continentally, I would say definitely. Oh, that's a great point, actually. Robbie Badger, Italian 90. Yeah. Dick Slovakia. Yeah. very very shortly let's talk some more where and what happened next after he left Milan oh can I say this is yeah this is a bit I know we're just ending the where section at Milan but I just want to say being at San Siro for the first time ever was very emotional for me because I grew up watching the three Dutchmen and then of course where at Milan and this is really this is going to sound really sad but I I've got to I've got to tell this on the podcast it's only a short thing so I go to San Siro and I get the hospitality tickets for Milan Sassuolo and I go down like if you go down to the um bathrooms on the bottom floor San Siro right on that floor you're actually quite close to the corner flag if you look out of the bathroom window so I go as a pretext of going to the bathroom because they've already like shut off all the gates to the San Siro like by then the actual pitch I open the windows and they're like already cutting grass for the next match and I was like I gazed out this is the closest I'll ever get to the part of the pitch where he started that goal and I was genuinely emotional and I opened the windows up and i'm like i'm like literally like smelling the cut grass and it's i know that's really pathetic but i'm like oh not at all this is the closest like i walked into san siro and i went up the spiral staircase and you see the alps obviously and i i was genuinely when i got to the station and walked up the spiral thing i was i was actually quite tearful thank god they're knocking that place down but i didn't realize how much it meant until then well that's a beautiful so you come bursting into our podcast dropping poetry on us like that.

53:35Sorry, sorry. No, I mean, we'll take a moment.

53:44You're listening to the Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at the Totally Show. Now, it was au revoir, Simone, and all the rest of the Milan teammates. as George headed off to Chelsea for a kind of weird late career spell in England. Chelsea, he signs, as we mentioned before, scored immediately against Spurs. He bags a couple more against Gillingham and is also for Chelsea on field for their FA Cup triumph at Wembley, playing up front alongside Juan Franco Zola. Hmm. Not Juan Franco, that's not a Spanish name, He even won Gianfranco Zola.

54:30He then joins Man City in August of 2000. Weirdly, doesn't feel right that at all. Gets benched a lot by Joe Royal, in fact. Courtesy of producer Charlie. Four of the nine goals that Ware scored in England came against Gillingham, spread out across three games for two different clubs. As Simon Johnson put it, which other head of state can boast that? anyway after that he went back to Marseille Tom anything of note there? and then he was off to Al Jazeera in the United Arab Emirates and then he hung up his boots yeah so when he left City he apparently contacted his former Monaco teammate Dieb who had played in midfield for Monaco and who was the sporting director at Marseille to offer his services because he needed to find a new club quite an unusual choice for a former PSG player.

55:26But he goes to Marseille. I think he scored five goals in all competitions over the 2000-2001 season and had such a good time there that when he had his testimonial at the end of his career in 2005, he had it at the Velodrome, which is pretty remarkable given that he played the grand total of 20 matches for Marseille. But he suggested that he had discussed the possibility of playing at the Parc des Prants and hadn't received the kind of favourable reaction he would have hoped for. So he ended up bowing out at the velodrome. Did it go better than Dennis Irwin's testimonial, which he also featured in?

56:05Well, he at least managed to avoid clobbering anyone and he himself was not clobbered within five minutes of kick-off, which was famously the fate that he inflicted upon Dennis Irwin on what should have been one of the happiest days of his career. James? Yeah, I mean, Tom will have subscribed to the great French football magazine Ones back in the day. But when Tim Weyer left Juventus to go and play for Marseille in the summer, he recreated this very famous front page that his father had done for that magazine. As people like to use this term too much these days, it was iconic. It was a very iconic front cover.

56:51Well after George had hung up his boots Politics became his focus He'd always been a man with an extremely strong sense of social responsibility Famously for the Liberian national team He would pay for all their kit, finances their bonuses Finance their transfers because of the issues that were going on in the country At that time he'd been an ambassador for UNICEF He'd done a variety of charity records Do you remember Frisbee and the African football stars? Lively up Africa I do not. That sounds AI generated.

57:29Anyway, in 2003, with the civil war in Liberia finally concluded, he announced his intention to run for president of the country. 2005, he lost to Ellen Johnson-Solif, who became Africa's first female head of state. people despite his popularity citing a lack of experience so what did george ware do well at the age of 40 he went back to school he completed his high school diploma and then he went on to get a bachelor's degree of business management and a master's in public administration then he goes for election again to the senate gets elected and in 2018 runs again for presidency and this time with Didier Drogba and Samuel Eto 'o in the crowd.

58:13He becomes inaugurated as president of Liberia. As Liberia's flag is raised, George Weyer is sworn in. As Liberia's 24th president of Liberia, and what better place to do it than a football stadium? Africa's most celebrated footballer is now the 24th president of Liberia. Fans here are euphoric. They've slept overnight to catch a glimpse of the country giant as he's called here, but they're desperate that his glittering football success can be translated off the pitch. Absolutely extraordinary. A curious quirk is the fact that he's not the only member of that Milan squad of the late 90s who did go on to occupy a senior national position, eh, James?

58:57Kaka Kaladze. Yeah, Kaladze, who was mayor of Tbilisi. He was also deputy prime minister. Yeah. Crazy. And, you know, I mean, again, famously, whilst he was at Milan, his brother was kidnapped, wasn't he? Never found. Yeah, horrible. Horrible story. That's a funny dressing room because you have Boban becoming really senior at UEFA as well. You have, like, some interesting, I think Baggio gets quite a big technical role, too, in Italian football. So you have a dressing room full of people who kind of take responsibility at a much higher level. I mean, I must say as well, much as I'm a huge fan of Weyer, I don't think his presidential tenure was the best.

59:39I think he, I've read quite a bit in terms of the appraise of his position. So I don't want this to be a sort of a hagiography of his political instincts, because I think there are some things that you just need a bit more experience for, and maybe just a bit more now, and like, you know, the art of governing a country is vastly, vastly different to, you know, excelling as he did, both on and off the field as a statesman for the game. But yeah, just an incredible path, really. And I kind of wish, I wish everyone was as socially or politically motivated as Ware was. I don't think it necessarily ended as well as it could have done politically, but I just wish a lot of the current players or players of his era had the same drive, I guess.

1:00:20We'd be in a different place now if they had. Do you know what he's doing now, Luzhan? No idea. I don't know either. Does anybody know what he's doing? He was interviewed by France Football Magazine in January last year, and he was kind of talking up the possibility of a presidential comeback because the next set of elections are in 2029, I believe. I'm not sure whether that was, you know, a real statement of intent or just something he was leaving the door open to. But yeah, watch this space. In the meantime, he's attending matches, sometimes watching his son Timothy play. with Timothy part of the USMNT set up, there's a chance that this summer we should finally have a Weyer featuring in a World Cup.

1:01:06Oh, wow. Yeah, exciting. I mean, Timmy grew up in New York in a way. He was kind of raised by his mother, who is Jamaican as well. And, yeah, so New York has, I think, always been home for Tim Weyer, who, you know, I think it's always hard for players who are the sons of great former players. And there are so many of them, it feels, you know, like even the teammates that Tim Weyer had at Juve, you know, sort of, or just, yeah, sort of passing when Federico Chiesa was there, or, you know, we've seen Yanis Hadji at Fiorentina. The constant comparisons can be, you know, quite um quite burdensome uh for them and um yeah certainly tim's struck out on his own and you know whilst there are things that call to mind his father he's very much his his own man actually i want to say on the note of uh footballing fathers and sons i was at a game recently venezia game and i saw this goalkeeper this unbelievable first touch and like presence on the ball and i checked the surname it was it's incredible right i'm like no no way of course it is the touch unbelievable so yeah um some happy times you know it's seri b seri b but they might well come up they look quite good this year excellent anything else we want to say on the subject of george ware before we uh salute the the great man well i mean speaking of new york as we just were the story was when he was playing for monaco uh was that he used to commute from new York by Concord.

1:02:52Now, I don't think he was doing this on a weekly basis. Daily? There was definitely a period, potentially daily, who knows? There was definitely a period when home was New York, and work was Monaco. And when he moved between the two, he did so via Concord. Did Concord fly to Monaco though, Tom? No, he wouldn't have done it. It would have been, I guess, Paris, and then probably another flight down to Monaco unless there was a closer airport. Any airports in Northern Italy maybe that would have flown Concorde? Not public. I think it was only Paris and London, wasn't it? Well, yeah. It was only Paris.

1:03:30Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's living. It certainly is, isn't it? Just last thing on Weyer, I think I should just say for me, from the perspective of an African footballer, if you look at the descendants, right, if you look at like Samuel Etou and Didier Drogba, what Etty went on to do with that Cameron team the incredible Cameron team with the Trebles he opened the door for all of them and I think it's really difficult to imagine I mean he had a belly belly before that right but a belly belly was like more like France-centric in terms of his in terms of an African superstar to come and do what Weir did and to dominate the narrative at a time when actually as well culturally culturally frankly like African male figures were not really like they were the figures of satire if you look at the biggest african male cultural figures they were like comedy shows right they weren't like protagonists and serious protagonists and weir came in and basically like transformed that entire narrative it was it was about as transformative as it's around the same time that rude hillett was uh well about 10 years earlier rude hillett wins the you know play of the world play of the year and like dedicates it to mandela right and these these moments are like oh these are like bigger than football because you know you've been to milan milan is not a it's not a town where black people still enjoy the greatest joy the most black people i saw in in milan when i went to the game like was the biggest cluster of them were selling stuff outside sancero right like economically socially dark-skinned black men in milan are still quite disadvantaged so for george ware to do that and for rudel it performed to do that like and rykard as well in the middle of milan in like the late 80s like mid 90s was like it was so ahead of its time and culturally i think like hugely significant and i know we joke about the perfume advert but like the idea of like a dark skin black guy being like a sex symbol in in like in milan in the mid 90s was like it was kind of a big thing it was a big thing i mean it'd be a big thing it's a big thing now but like then it was really like it was something else absolutely what what a guy george ware what impact he had on and off the field and pretty much everything that he has put his mind to.

1:05:39An absolute phenomenal, a lovely chap, may I say once again, I really enjoyed meeting up with him. And it's been a real pleasure to look back on his extraordinary career. And hopefully, if there are any people who didn't know too much about King George beyond that Verona goal or even thought that it was just a case of bad defending, this podcast has maybe helped a little bit. now before we wrap things up the question that Duncan Alexander sent in was what African what other African player Robert George Ware has been top scorer in a Champions League season who's got a guess at this ok so why don't you all go we'll take turns and you say yes or no ok so Moosa do you want to go first Mo Salah no Tom Samuel Leto also no James James.

1:06:30Is it N. Naziri? It's not N. Naziri. Listener, the answer is... Sir Hu Gurasi. Of course. Ah, Gurasi. 13 goals in the Champions League. 24-25. Last season. How quickly we forget. I mean, it was a bigger season. So, you know, there's different parameters. Yeah. 13 goals, though. That's such a Doug Alexander. He's sneaky. He is, isn't he? Even from his sickbed. Yeah. 13 girls level with Rafinha, who also bagged 13 times. There you go. Thank you so much, Lisa, for being with us. Thank you, James, Tom and Musa, and to sundry producers like Charlie and Jesse. We'll be back with another totally extra of the kind of historical bent soon enough.

1:07:17Next week, I think, it's going to be all about Tuesday night's Champions League action, which will be fun. For now, though, from all of us here, it's thanks for listening, and we'll speak to you soon. you've been listening to the totally football show part of the athletic fc podcast network for other great podcasts just like this one including the athletic fc and our dedicated club podcasts search for the athletic in all the usual places we're also at the totally show on insta and at the totally show on youtube the totally football show is an athletic media Company production.