Fake news (for now, at least).
Arsene Wenger was one of the first people to congratulate George Weah on becoming the new president of Liberia. A shame then that the news isn’t actually true. Not yet, anyway.
The former AC Milan striker was indeed one of 20 presidential candidates in his home country having turned his hand to politics in recent years.
Even though the final results of Liberia’s election are yet to be announced, the BBC point out that Wenger – who managed Weah while at Monaco in the early 1990s – offered his congratulations after seemingly being ‘duped’ by social media reports claiming the results had been confirmed.
“I would like to congratulate one of my former players, who became president of Liberia,” he said.
“It’s not often that you have a former player who becomes a president of a country.
“Well done George and I would say just for him to keep his enthusiasm and his desire to learn and to win,” he added.”
Weah, a former Fifa World Footballer of the Year, has failed in two previous attempts to become the country’s president. He is, however, one of the favourites to replace President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on this occasion.
In Liberia, a candidate needs more than 50% of the votes for outright victory in an election, with experts forecasting it is likely to go to a second round.
Unless he knows something the rest of the world doesn’t, it appears the Arsenal boss might have been slightly premature with his congratulatory message.
