One of the most puzzling things about Liberian football great and now president, George Weah, is how a fully-fledged Liberian will have an exclusive Ghanaian name as his middle name.
A first-time hearing of the name ‘George Oppong Weah’ will birth the assumption that he is Ghanaian but the man in question who conquered global football in 1995 is a Liberian with absolutely no relations in Ghana.
His only connection to Ghana, perhaps is his frequent visit to the country and relationship with some of the country’s best footballers and celebrities.
So how did he come by name Oppong?
There are a number of reports and conspiracies on how George Weah came by the Ghanaian name Oppong.
Liberia Civil war conspiracies
Some accounts alleged that during the civil war in Liberia from 1987 to 1999, George Weah’s parents adopted the name Oppong for their young son to enable him to escape from the country and seek refuge in Ghana.
This theory is, however, hard to swallow as Oppong Weah was on the books of Cameroonian side Tonnerre Yaounde at the time the war broke in 1987.
Another theory that ‘falls flat’ in the face of ample evidence about the trajectory of George Weah’s career is that he picked up the name during his days as a refugee in Ghana.
There exists no record of Weah being a refugee in Ghana and at the height of the Liberian war, George Weah was enjoying a career in Cameroon, France, and Italy.
Ghanaian root conspiracies
Again, there was a wild story about George Weah being a product of a Ghanaian father and a Liberian mother. The report indicated that his father who was called Oppong, hailed from a town in the Western Region and met his Liberian mother.
The theory is at best a conjecture and a result of someone’s wild imagination as George Weah’s father is called William T. Weah Sr, a Liberian mechanic.
The closest and perhaps most credible of all the theories is that George Weah picked up the name Oppong as his football idol was a Ghanaian by the name Oppong.
While this theory, like the others, remains a conjecture with no validation from Oppong Weah himself, former Ghanaian right back and Asante Kotoko legend, Dan Oppong, has claimed that he inspired the christening of Oppong on George Weah.
Dan Oppong told Dan Kwaku Yeboah that George Weah was a huge fan of his and decided to adopt the name.
“It’s true that I’m the reason he attached Oppong to his name. I remember when he came to the United States, he sent someone to come look for me but I couldn’t meet him because of work. We never played together but he just liked my style of play. People used to tell me that he always mentioned my name as a fan,” he said.
What Weah himself said
George Weah has always maintained that he is a Liberian with no relation to Ghana. He has, however, not commented on the Oppong name yet.
In a visit to Ghana in 2017, George Oppong Weah in a Starr FM interview said: “Ghana played a major role in my upbringing especially during the war in Liberia when our national team was based in Ghana at the time.”
