George Weah, considered one of the greatest African footballers ever, was on Thursday close to becoming Liberia’s next president who will lead the country’s first democratic transition in over seven decades.
Weah had 61.5% of the votes by Thursday evening, with fewer than 2% votes yet to be counted, the National Elections Commission said. Vice President Joseph Boakai was second with 38.5% votes. The elections were held on Tuesday.
Weah will succeed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was Africa’s first elected female president.
In 1995, Weah became the first – and remains the only – African footballer to win the Fifa World Player of the Year award. The former AC Milan and Chelsea striker entered politics after retiring from the game in 2002.
He lost the 2005 presidential elections to Sirleaf, who succeeded Charles Taylor after the end of a brutal civil war. Taylor is now serving a 50-year sentence in the United Kingdom for war crimes.
“My fellow Liberians, I deeply feel the emotion of all the nation,” Weah wrote on Twitter. “I measure the importance and the responsibility of the immense task which I embrace today. Change is on.”
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