TUESDAY TRIVIA George Weah's Italian adventure

Tuesday Trivia is a weekly column that presents relevant sporting facts. This week’s edition, in light of Victor Osimhen eclipsing George Weah’s Serie A record, takes a look at the Liberian’s time at AC Milan.

In leading Napoli to the 2022/23 Scudetto, Nigeria international Victor Osimhen has made history in more ways than one. Not only was this the Neapolitan club’s first league title win in 33 years, but Osimhen’s penalty against Fiorentina saw him break the record for goals by an African in Serie A.

This record was previously held by George Weah, the mythical Liberian marksman who, in 1995, became the first (and only) man to win the World Footballer of the Year, Ballon D’Or and African Footballer of the Year awards. 

In a touching gesture, Osimhen took to social media to eulogise Weah. If reports are to be believed and the 24-year-old is set to stay with il Partenopei into next season, he could push the envelope even further by the time he eventually departs Italian football for pastures new.

It nevertheless brought into focus what Weah achieved in his time in Italy, and so here are some interesting numbers around his time at AC Milan.

• 15 - The number of goals, across two clubs, that Weah scored in 1995, en route to winning the World Footballer of the Year, Ballon D’Or and African Footballer of the Year awards.
• 5 - Weah’s favourite opponents in Serie A were Atalanta and Sampdoria, against whom he scored five times. Statistically, however, it was the Bergamaschi that he most terrorised, scoring against them every single time he darkened their doorstep.
• 2 - Weah’s earliest Serie A strike came against, you guessed it, Atalanta on February 11, 1996. It was his eighth league goal for AC Milan.
• 0 - While he was the scourge of many of Italy’s top sides, a couple of the smaller sides faced Weah on multiple occasions and came away unscathed. Piacenza, in particular, seemed adept at containing the former Liberia international, facing him on five occasions without giving up a goal to him. Interestingly, Milan only won one of those five meetings.

• 3 - The number of teams Weah never won a game against during his time in Milan: Torino, Cagliari and Lecce (all of whom he faced at least twice).
• 11.11% - Of the teams Weah did get at least one win against, his worst win ratio was against city rivals Inter: he won only one of nine matches.
• Juventus – Weah faced more than his fair share of provocation in Italy, some of it racial, and was mostly level-headed through it. He was, however, sent off once in his Serie A career: against Juventus on january 6, 1999.
• 9 - The number of clubs Weah never lost to in Serie A (at least two meetings).
• 17 - It took until his 17th goal for George Weah to score with his left foot. In total, his left foot accounted for 13% (six) of his 46 goals in Serie A, while 30.4% (14) were headers

• 25% - Weah’s first campaign in Serie A was the only in which the distribution of first-half and second half goals was weighted in favour of the former. A trend emerged: more and more, he tended to strike in the second half of matches; by his final season, only 25% of his goals were scored in the first halves of matches.
• 13 - Over the course of five campaigns with the Rossoneri, Weah scored 46 goals for the club. His single most prolific campaign came in 1996/97, when he bagged 13 times as Milan improbably plummeted to 11th in Serie A.
• 30 - Osimhen may have equalled Weah’s goal tally, but he has some way to go toward replicating the Liberian’s overall goal contribution. In addition to scoring 46 times for Milan, Weah also played a part in 30 others. (Osimhen currently has 9 assists for Napoli.)
• 84.8% - The percentage of George Weah’s 46 Serie A goals that were scored from inside the penalty box.

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