A few days ago, Italian player Tomasi took over as mayor of the romantic city of Verona. Tomasi has also been dubbed by fans another man from CCTV5 to CCTV1.
Among these players from "CCTV5 to CCTV1", the most accomplished is the former World Footballer of the Year winner George Weah.
Giorgio Weah was hailed as a black lightning bolt on the pitch during his playing years. In particular, while playing for AC Milan, he scored 45 goals in 112 games. In 1995, he won the World Footballer of the Year and the Golden Ball Awards, becoming the only "Mr. Golden Globe" in African history.
The club is full of achievements, but his national team career is full of regrets. In order to help his motherland Liberia stand on the World Cup field, he even paid for all the costs of Liberia's participation in the competition out of his own pocket, but failed to exchange a World Cup ticket for the motherland. Not being able to stand on the World Cup arena may be the biggest regret of Weah's career.
After retiring from the army, Weah has achieved a transformation from football to politics. The football field did not lead its own country to the World Cup. After being elected president, Weah wanted to lead the country out of the tragedy of poverty in the political arena.
Looking back at history, it is not difficult to find that Liberia was one of the few countries in Africa that was not colonized before the First World War, but it has become the poorest country. So, what exactly has happened to this country? Let's look at the past and present lives of this country.
Liberia's past life was a republic created by the United States
George Weah's native Liberia, located near the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa, covers an area of about 110,000 square kilometers, about the size of the mainland's Zhejiang Province, with a population of only 4.7 million, less than 1/10 of Zhejiang Province, and is a small West African country.
Before World War I, Liberia was one of the few countries in Africa that had not been partitioned. The backer behind it is the United States. The flag of Liberia is modeled after the American design. Liberia's political system is to copy and paste the United States.
Its capital, Monrovia, is from U.S. President Monroe. Today, Weah's son, Weah Jr., plays for Team USA, a reflection of the connection between Liberia and the United States.
The relationship between the United States and Liberia dates back to the era of slavery. Since the opening of the new shipping route, a large number of European colonists have come to the Americas to establish colonies. Among them, the British established their own thirteen colonies in North America to grow cotton. Especially in the south, where plantations are dense.
After the American Revolutionary War, the number of people of African descent soared from 500 in 1680 to 500,000. Most of them lived in the southern region, also known as slave states.
After the independence of the United States, the plantation economy in the South was greatly preserved, but some blacks in the North completed their redemption and became free blacks.
Free blacks have been the biggest headache in the United States. To solve this problem, in 1783, the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, made the decision to repatriate blacks to their native Africa.
Subsequently, the United States began to work intensively to help blacks find their own homes in African lands. It was not until 1819 that the United States found a "no-man's land" on land south of the British colony of Sierra Leone as an ideal place of repatriation.
However, the local indigenous black tribes were not welcome to fellow "blacks" from North America. The Americans had guns in their hands, and they had to obey. After the occupation of the area in 1824, it was named Liberia after latin freedom.
The name monroe, which strongly supports the activities here, is also named "Monrovia" in Monrovia. It is the capital of today's Liberia.
In 1839, the Constitution of Liberia was created based on the Constitution of the United States of 1787, and the entire political system of the United States was moved to Liberia.
It can be said that Liberia is the first African Republic established under the United States Constitution.
Before World War I, much of Africa was divided between France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Portugal, and Spain. Only Ethiopia, which defeated Italy, and Liberia, which the United States themselves had built, remained independent.
Free Black vs Indigenous Black led to frequent civil wars in Liberia
When free blacks from the United States arrived on Liberian soil, they were transformed from oppressed to oppressors.
They are known as Hispanic Liberians, and although they make up only 5% of the country's total population, they have mastered the machine of the entire country and become the masters of the country. Indigenous people, who make up only 95 per cent of the population, have been excluded from political life (1839-1980). The lives of American Liberians, who make up less than 5 percent of the population, are heavenly, but the lives of the local Indigenous people are destitute.
Liberia has only copied the American system in its political system, but its economic system has not copied the operations of the United States.
After the Civil War, the United States increased its horsepower to develop heavy industry and high and new technologies, and became an important economic power in the world. The establishment of the status of an economic power provides a guarantee for the United States to enter the political power in the future.
However, Liberia has been slow to begin the process of industrialization. Instead, it put all the treasure on the tropical plantation economy and the mining industry. Moreover, Liberia handed over all the mines and rubber plantations in the country to the capital of the United States, and the Liberians took the majority of the income, while the indigenous people could only get a little.
Compared with the United States, Liberia's economy is structured in a single, agriculture-based economy with no industrialization reforms. This means that Liberia's primary-commodity economy is difficult to withstand international risks.
In particular, the global oil crisis of the 1970s exacerbated the plight of Liberia's national economy. Liberia, without oil, is gradually falling behind in the international economic arena. The withering of the country's economy has brought about a series of social problems. In particular, the oppressed indigenous Liberians formed groups to oppose the Government.
Liberia is on the verge of civil war. In 1980, Liberia, whose economy was deteriorating, staged a military coup in which doe, then an officer, killed the president and took power himself. This pushed Liberia to the brink of civil war.
Because Liberia's indigenous black population, although the overall proportion is high, but there are many tribes, the proportion of more than 20% of the population of the tribe is not one. The various tribes finally fought for the sake of state power in 1989. The Civil War in Liberia broke out.
A year after the outbreak of the civil war, Liberia was not originally listed as a least developed country in the United Nations. Just one year later, as a result of the outbreak of the civil war, Liberia joined the ranks of the least developed countries.
The war did not officially end until 2003.
Weah went from football to politics
Prior to the outbreak of the Liberian Civil War, George Wea joined Monaco in Ligue 1. Since then, he has moved to Ligue 1 paris saint-germain, Serie A AC Milan and Premier League Chelsea. He has performed well in all major European leagues.
Wea did not qualify for the World Cup, on the one hand, the competition in the African region is very fierce. On the other hand, the civil war was very devastating to the country's economy.
In the 1998 World Preliminary Tournament, in order to be able to stand on the World Cup field, Weah once paid for all the costs of Liberia's participation in the World Cup, but failed to exchange a Ticket for the World Cup for his homeland.
In the 21st century, Liberia, mired in civil war, is having a hard time forming a national team. It wasn't until 2000 that the 34-year-old Weah set up the Liberian national team out of his own pocket to prepare for the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
This time, Liberia lost to Nigeria by one point and regrettably bid farewell to the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. This is Liberia's closest to the World Cup.
That year, liberia's president was the infamous Charles Taylor. Charles Taylor's long-standing suspicion of Weah prevented him from retiring from the United States.
In 2003, with the fall of Charles Taylor, Liberia ushered in a long-lost peace. When Weah meets with his idol, The Father of the South African Nation, Mandela tells Via that the best way to serve the country is to be president, and to be president is to work for the welfare of the Liberian people.
The stability of the political situation allowed Weah to firmly run for election. Via, who had experienced many failures, completed high school, college and master's degrees through his own efforts, which paved the way for his eventual candidacy.
In 2017, Viah was elected president of Liberia. Started his perfect second half.
The road from Mr. Ballon d'Or to president is fraught with bumps, and the political chases are far worse than those of experienced defenders on the football pitch. The problems facing Liberia are difficult – high unemployment, economic development woes and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Weah and his Liberia still need to work to lift themselves out of poverty at an early date.