1 October: Weah, Africa's first Ballon d'Or

George Weah

From Monrovia to Monaco

He grew up in a very poor neighbourhood of Monrovia, the Liberian capital, and played for clubs in his own country and in Cameroon before making the leap. In 1988 he joined Monaco, then coached by Arsène Wenger, who became his great champion. Weah has said it many times: without the coach who trusted an unknown kid, there would have been no career.

At Monaco he won the 1991 Coupe de France and began to make a name as a different kind of striker: powerful, lightning quick, able to take the ball in his own half and go through on goal alone.

PSG and the big year

In 1992 he moved to Paris Saint-Germain, with whom he won the 1994 league title and two cups. The 1994-95 season was his European breakthrough: PSG reached the Champions League semi-finals and Weah was the tournament's top scorer.

That summer he joined Milan, and at the end of the year the award arrived. 1995 was the first Ballon d'Or open to players of any nationality playing in Europe, and the first to take advantage was him. He also won FIFA's award for the best player in the world.

The goal against Verona

With Milan he won Serie A in 1996 and 1999. His most famous goal came in September 1996, against Verona at San Siro: he picked the ball up in his own box after an opposition corner, ran the length of the pitch past half their team and scored. It is still shown as an example of what Weah was: a striker who needed nobody.

He later had short spells at Chelsea, Manchester City and Marseille. For years he paid many of the Liberian national team's expenses out of his own pocket, and with them he fell one point short of the 2002 World Cup. Later he went into politics in his country, where he became president, and his son Timothy has played at a World Cup for the United States.

Also born on 1 October

Duncan Edwards, the one who never got to be

🎂 would have turned 90

A midfielder of the Busby Babes, Matt Busby's young Manchester United who won the English league in 1956 and 1957. He made his England debut at eighteen, and those who saw him play, Bobby Charlton first among them, always said he was the best footballer they had ever known.

On 6 February 1958 the plane bringing the team back from a European Cup tie in Belgrade crashed on take-off in Munich. Edwards survived the crash but died fifteen days later in hospital. He was twenty-one.

Born1 October 1936

Died21 February 1958

CountryEngland

Positionmidfielder

Clubs

• Manchester United Football Club 1953-1958 · 20 goals

National teamselección de fútbol de Inglaterra B, selección de fútbol de Inglaterra

Other awards

Salón de la Fama del fútbol inglés

↻ Dates, clubs and individual awards come from Wikidata and update themselves

Júlio Baptista, the Beast

🎂 turns 45

He arrived at Sevilla in 2003 as a midfielder and turned into a fearsome goalscorer: in his two seasons at the Sánchez-Pizjuán he scored more than forty goals and earned the nickname «the Beast». He then played for Real Madrid, Arsenal, Roma and Málaga, and won the 2007 Copa América with Brazil.

Born1 October 1981

CountryBrazil

Positionforward

Clubs

• São Paulo Futebol Clube 2000-2003 · 7 goals
• Sevilla Fútbol Club 2003-2005 · 38 goals
• Real Madrid Club de Fútbol 2005-2008 · 11 goals
• Arsenal Fútbol Club 2006-2007 · 3 goals
• A.S. Roma 2008-2011 · 12 goals
• Málaga Club de Fútbol 2011-2013 · 14 goals

National teamSelección de fútbol de Brasil

↻ Dates, clubs and individual awards come from Wikidata and update themselves

🔴⚪ Sporting Gijón players born this day

They played for Sporting Gijón and were born on this same day. There is only their data here: we would rather name them than leave them out, and rather give the bare facts than invent a story.

Another 38 internationally known footballers were born on this day. We do not list them for the sake of it: only those with a story to tell make it here.

Dates, clubs, individual awards and photos come from Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, under free licences, and update themselves. Ages are not written anywhere: they are calculated the moment you open the page, so this page always shows the right age, this year and twenty years from now. If any of these players signs for another club or wins an award, their profile picks it up on its own. What is written by hand is the story and the judgement: who the day belongs to, and why.