Before striking superstars Mario Balotelli, Sergio Aguero and Erling Haaland, City had global legend George Weah – but not for long! We look back at his short, sharp spell in Manchester.
Nicky Weaver’s mind was awash with names as he headed home following a conversation with Alex Stepney that had left his head spinning.
Stepney, City’s goalkeeping coach, had told Weaver a huge name in the world of football was signing on the dotted line the next day.
Weaver thought long and hard about who it could be – but never in a million years did he think that player would be George Weah, former Ballon d’Or winner and scorer of one of the most iconic goals in the history of our beautiful game.
His solo salvo for AC Milan against Verona is the stuff of legend and it was a true legend of the game who walked into Platt Lane that next morning, pulling up in a Rolls-Royce before heading out for a session on the grass with Weaver and co who were preparing for a first season back in English football’s top-flight after a five-year absence.
This was a team who’d just two seasons before lost to York away in what must go down as the nadir of the club’s long and illustrious history.
Now a superstar was walking through the doors – and Weaver could scarcely believe his eyes.
“I remember to this day – and I’ll never forget it - Alex Stepney, our goalkeeping coach, saying to me ‘you wait until tomorrow’. I casually replied ‘oh we’re making a signing, are we?’. He smiled and said ‘Nicky, it’s a big, big name’. I obviously asked ‘how big are we talking?’ and he said ‘it’s a massive, massive name’.
“Obviously it could have been a lot of players. We didn’t have breaking news on social media like we have now but the next morning George Weah turned up in his Rolls-Royce and I was like ‘What, George Weah?’
“I remember seeing him scoring that incredible goal for AC Milan a few years before. He was a Ballon d’Or winner, of course, as everyone knows.
“Then all of a sudden, George is walking into the building to join the squad...
...‘MORNING GEORGE!’”
The shock at seeing Weah become a Blue in that emerging era when City were desperately trying to reassert their authority as one of England’s football forces was echoed by Weaver’s teammate, Steve Howey.
Howey, a no-nonsense centre-half, arrived the same summer as the Liberian as one of five early signings, Weah and Howey joined at Maine Road by Norwegian midfield marauder Alfie Haaland, the enigmatic Costa Rican Paulo Wanchope and Scottish centre-half Paul Ritchie.
The disparity in profile of that quintet was certainly not lost on the popular defender.
“It did seem a little leftfield when George joined, I must admit,” said the now Matchday Live pundit.
“It was a case of ‘really,
we’ve signed George Weah?’
“That summer they’d signed myself, Alfie, Paulo and Paul and then there obviously was George.
“So it was four fairly normal players and then this superstar known all around the world.
“When you look back now and think about it, you go ‘wow, it was George Weah’. I’d been watching him on the TV when he was at Milan. Then all of a sudden, you’re in the dressing room with him. It was surreal.”
There may have been shock in the dressing room, but there was strategy in the boardroom.
And who better to explain it than the chairman of the club in that period, David Bernstein, who’d presided over a rapid return to the big time in his years at the helm.
City had gone down and then down again as Alan Ball, Steve Coppell, Frank Clark and Joe Royle failed to stop the bleeding with the Blues, one of the powerhouses of English football, dropping from the Premier League to Division Two.
Bernstein, a Blue since birth whose earliest memory was City’s 1956 FA Cup triumph over Birmingham, was the safest of hands on the tiller, with revival and renaissance the defining watchwords of his spell in charge.
He'd appointed the reliable Royle who led the charge back to the highest echelons courtesy of a dramatic penalty shoot-out Wembley win over Gillingham in 1999 followed by a Kings of the Hill last-day promotion party at Blackburn in 2000.
City were back where they belonged with the pair looking to chart a courageous course in the top league.
Royle put the name of Weah to Bernstein and the chairman was only too happy to back the manager who’d enjoyed so much success at the club in those preceding years.
Bernstein himself, clearly motivated by the onfield impact of the megastar marksman also saw the offfield benefits of bringing in such an illustrious name after years in the doldrums.
“It’s fair to say, we’d been through a very difficult period over the past 10 years or so and we were beginning to be on the rise,” said Bernstein.
“We’d had a double promotion behind us and during that period the team had done fantastically well but we hadn’t had what you might call any major signings of the sort the club are now very, very used to.
“George Weah, who was a World Player of the Year of course, was a hugely significant arrival.
“From our perspective, I think the advantages of bringing him in were first we were signing unquestionably a very great player even though he was at the end of his career and second, he gave us additional credibility and gave the fans that feel that the club was continuing on the that promising trajectory.
“We were putting down a marker that
the club was on the way back
and the fans could look forward to further big signings in the future.
“Which of course we delivered with Nicolas Anelka later on who was a player in his prime when we signed him.
“But George created a huge buzz around the club. I think the players of that time, although they probably realised we were paying George somewhat more than what they were getting, understood that and realised it was part of a journey.
“I think the players saw the club was looking at such a grand scale and could sense the ambitions that we had.
“As for doing the deal? With Joe, I had a very good relationship. We were very close. We didn’t argue. We talked things through almost on a daily basis.
“He wasn’t one to come in with a demand – I have to have him! He instead came in with a very positive suggestion. I could see the merits of it straight away and George probably saw it as a good opportunity for him to come to a club that was on the up and up with a wonderful fanbase.”
It was, no question, a statement of intent.
Weah was...
a two-time Serie A winner with AC Milan
FA Cup winner with Chelsea
Ligue One winner with PSG
a three-time African Footballer of the Year
UEFA Champions League top scorer
FIFA World Player of the Year
As well as being voted one of the 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time by World Soccer
But, despite hitting these huge heights in the game, what the board and players were greeted with was a humble guy who simply loved playing football.
“He was a superstar of course. But the best thing I can do it give you a quote from Shaun Goater, which I would endorse,” continued Bernstein.
“’George had no airs or graces, was a normal guy and was willing to pass on his experience and advice and help people.’
“I think that showed the quality of the man. He certainly fitted in with the players and he was someone they were bound to look up to.”
Howey was equally fulsome in his praise of Weah the person.
“He was brilliant, so lovely and easy to talk to. He was great to deal with. I got on with him well, found him to be a nice bloke.”
After the euphoria and excitement felt by everyone of sky blue persuasion on the arrival of Weah, it was down to what really mattered – football matches.
And the Liberian, it’s fair to say, didn’t play many of them before a short, sharp exit from the club, returning to France for a spell at Marseille before taking in Al Jazira in the UAE Football League, where he remained until his retirement in 2003, at age 37.
The stats don’t lie. He stayed two months in Manchester. He played seven Premier League games, two more in the League Cup, and scored just once in the top-flight.
That was a consolation at Anfield in a 3-2 Premier League defeat to Liverpool although he did hit three over two League Cup legs against Gillingham, the Blues going out two rounds later at home to Ipswich Town by which time Weah was long gone.
Fast forward to 2024 and it wasn’t lost on City fans far and wide, either, that Weah name-checked virtually every team he’d played for except City when he was interviewed onstage as a special guest at the Ballon d’Or ceremony in France when Rodri became our first-ever winner of the prestigious prize.
No real surprise, given the fleeting and forgettable spell he spent here.
But why did it go so wrong? Bernstein and Weaver both sing from the same hymnsheet on that one.
“I think Joe saw him as an impact bench player who could come on for 30 minutes, 45 minutes and really turn a game with his power and experience,” said the former chairman.
“I think George maybe didn’t see it the same way. He would be wanting to start the matches and play a full 90 minutes. That probably was the problem and why George fairly quickly worked out that what Joe was going to give him wasn’t what he wanted. “That I think was the problem and it manifested itself pretty quickly. If I remember correctly,
“He started the first few games and then Joe put him on the bench and I think as soon as that happened
there was a degree of tension.
“And George felt he wasn’t being treated in the way he expected. I think he realised Joe’s view of him was a little different from his own.
“If George had come in a few years previous, with the strength and stamina of a slightly younger player, I think it would have worked out extremely well.
“But there were flashes. I remember very clearly we played at Gillingham. I went down to the game and at one stage we were defending and then we broke and I saw George breaking forward at the same time at tremendous pace actually and I remember thinking ‘this is a terrific moment for Manchester City’ to see a player of that class, it was quite a moment, a dramatic sight at that stage in our development. He scored three goals across those two legs against the team we, of course, had beaten in the Play-Off Final two years previous.”
“George was past his best, no doubt about it,” added Weaver.
“But you could still see how he’s won the Ballon d’Or. However, you could also see his days as a footballer were coming to an end.
“He wasn’t at City long enough to show what he could really do in games and that’s why his spell was so short because he probably thought he’d play a lot more than he did.
“But in training, you could see certain things he could do that others simply couldn’t.
“Every now and then you see someone who’s a bit different and George was that
– a special talent and a rock star of football.
“There were flashes in training – his finishing was brilliant, that never leaves you but you probably can’t get in the positions like you used to.
“He scored a few goals – four in nine games - but I think, if memory serves me right, one weekend Joe named the team on the Friday and George was in it and then Joe changed his mind and then George wasn’t in it later that day.
“Then I don’t think we saw much of George after that.
“I am going back a long time. But I think George thought he was playing and then it became clear he wasn’t and he didn’t take too kindly to that news.
“Obviously Joe had to do what was best for the team. I think George probably thought he was going to play more than he did.”
Weah clearly grew disillusioned with life out on the field and, as is often the case in life, that frustration can affect your mood off the pitch, too.
Alistair Mann, now of CITY+, was a presenter with Granada TV and had booked Weah to appear on the Manchester station’s popular football show as the Liberian’s sky blue career started to unravel.
Needless to say a car was called to pick up the football great from his rented city centre apartment.
But when it arrived, Weah was in no mood to play ball.
“George sent out his son George Jnr to say that his dad wasn't in!” said Mann.
“The driver glanced up and saw George Snr looking out from the window! The driver pointed it out to his son who quickly replied ‘Ah well, he's not feeling too good!’
“The driver then sped rapidly to Frank Stapleton's house a few miles away to get him instead to fill George's massive shoes!
“Needless to say, all our features had to be thrown onto the cutting room floor!”
Not long after, Weah was gone.
His departure wasn’t the only disappointment that campaign, of course, with City suffering relegation back to the Division One, leading to the departure of Royle before the arrival of Kevin Keegan who, like Joe before him, soon led the club back to the top-flight.
It's not lost on Bernstein that Weah’s departure was followed by City’s downfall.
“There’s obviously mixed feelings because on the one hand you had the significance of the signing but then it didn’t work out incredibly well and the season didn’t work out incredibly well either after back-to-back promotions.
“You have to say that the confusion of a great player coming in and then going, you can’t afford those things when you’ve been promoted, you have to get everything right.
“Those comings and goings, great excitement followed by a bit of a downer when he left was overall probably not the best thing.
“It turned out to be a very disappointing season and Joe left at the end of that season. I had to deal with that but there is a great deal of regret because I think he did a wonderful job over the previous two or three years. It’s a bit of a mixed picture. I think George was signed for the right reasons but it didn’t quite work out in the end.”
Despite his short spell, Weah certainly left an impression – on Weaver in particular.
“I remember one day saying ‘that’s a nice watch, George’.
“And he said ‘oh yes, Donatella Versace gave me that’.
“They were the circles he was moving in – a bit different from mine.
“But he’s the only Ballon d’Or winner I’ve ever played with!”
Built with Shorthand