African player of the year. African football was rapidly improving -at least as individual talent and professional approach – and the voting of the continental player of the year shows it: only 3 players in the top 10 played in Afrcia – 2 Egyptians, both playing for Al-Ahly (Cairo): Ahmed Shoubeir, 7th, and Hossam Hassan, 10th, and one Cameroonian, playing for Tonnere Yaounde: Stephen Tataw, 8th, who will become internationally well known very soon. The rest were not only European based, but played for big clubs already: Stephen Keshi, 9th (Nigeria and Anderlecht), Kalusha Bwalya, 3rd (Zambia and PSV Eindhoven), Joseph-Antoine Bell, 2nd (Cameroon and Bordeaux). Add already well known around Europe Abedi Ayew Pele (Ghana and Lille), Francois Oman-Biyik (Cameroon and Laval). Africa was having famous players already and new talent was pushing ahead, for it was not the already established who won the top place, but bright youngster, who came from… nowhere. Bwalya was 3rd with 49 points, Bell – 2nd with 105 points, and number one with 133 points was a guy from Liberia, who just played his first season in Europe.
George Weah, only 23 years old striker, just had very impressive first season with AS Monaco.
He was not just rubbing shoulders with European tough and famous professionals, but actually prevailing over them – as Pietro Vierchowod of Sampdoria was about to experience – and the young African was already on the path to mega-stardom. In Africa he was already known even if Liberia was hardly the country noticed by anyone in the football realm – and may be because of that Weah already had unusual and long career: he debuted in the 1985-86 for small Bong Range United only to join the strong Liberian club Mighty Barolle in the same season. He was included in the Liberian national team in 1986 and was regular ever since, but his home country offered very little to his ambition – and he moved to stronger leagues quickly – started the 1986-87 still at home with Invincible Eleven, but moved to Africa Sports (Cote d’Ivoir) in 1987 and then, in the same year to Tonnere Yaounde (Cameroon). 1987-88 was his first and last season with Tonnere, for AS Monaco spotted his great talent and hired him – he shined immediately and after his first season in France was voted African player of the year. It was rapid climb from stronger and stronger clubs, moving from one country to another with better football, thus gaining valuable experience with different approaches, tougher opponents, in other words, developing his professional skills. Other African players did similar moves before him, but without moving from country to country in search of stronger football and not so rapidly. Weah was rightly recognized as an enormous talent who actually delivered, a great individual development and approach, destined him to mega-stardom. He was the face, the poster boy, of the new African football – no longer just talented, but finally combining talent with discipline, hard training, true professionalism.
George Weah was certainly opening a new page in the history of African football – the continental players, if not the clubs, reached maturity in football terms. As Weah himself, it was still just an early stage of his great career – Europe was yet to be concurred and soon.