Liberia s passion for football returned only recently. During those years, young Liberians had other battles to wage, not with footballs but with guns, avenging their parents or siblings and fighting as child-soldiers. Today, erstwhile factional rivals wear the same team shirts, are equal before the ball and equally fervent about the game. Thanks to television, they follow every detail of championships in Europe and Latin America. Everybody knows who Brazilian striker Ronaldo is and how many goals Mister George has scored for Olympique de Marseilles this season.
Every game involving the national team is a big event.
Sometimes there are 20,000 more people watching the match than the Monrovia stadium officially has room for. Women and children come too, says Weah. They make up about half the crowd. Sometimes the police have to intervene. But when Liberia wins and they have, recently, notched up surprising victories against Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone people take to the streets to celebrate and children wait hours at the players entrance in search of autographs.