AC Milan legend George Weah is elected president of Liberia: Lord Coe, Romario and Manny Pacquiao among other sportsmen-turned-politicians
GEORGE WEAH has been elected president of Liberia after a landslide victory over rival Joseph Boakai.
The 1995 Ballon d'Or-winner is arguably the greatest African footballer of all-time, most famous for his spell at AC Milan.
However, he has been heavily involved in politics — and unsuccessfully ran in the 2005 election following the end of the Second Liberian Civil War.
Critics claimed a lack of formal education saw him miss out, which is a perception he has campaigned against ever since before pursuing a degree in business administration in Miami.
He was elected onto the Liberian Senate in 2014 and, has now been elected president after his overwhelming victory over Boakai — having initially failed to secure 50 per cent required to win outright.
But Weah is not the first man to swap sports for politics, here are seven others to represent their country in altogether different way.
Lord Sebastian Coe
British middle distance runner is most famous for his rivalry with Steve Ovett and two 1,500m gold medals won in the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games.
But, in 1992 he was elected as a Falmouth and Camborne MP for the Conservative party before losing his seat in the general election five years later.
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Coe then returned to politics as the chief of staff to William Hague for the unsuccessful 2001 general election.
He successfully led London's charge to host the 2012 Olympics and is vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federation.
Romario
One of the great Brazilian footballers, he was the Samba side;s star man when they triumphed at USA 94.
Romario was also part of Johan Cruyff's Barcelona Dream Team.
But, despite being a controversial figure during his career, Romario was elected to the Chamber of Deputies on the Brazilian Socialist Party's ticket.
He campaigned against corruption at the home 2014 World Cup, claimed the 2018 World Cup was "stolen" from England and "sold" to Russia and admitted he wanted to overthrow Brazilian FA chiefs.
Romario was elected to the country's senate in 2014 and received the most votes ever for a candidate representing Rio de Janeiro.
Marat Safin
A two-time Grand Slam winner, the Russian enjoyed a successful tennis career.
He won the 2000 US Open at the age of 20 and the Australian Open five years later — also reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon and the French Open.
In 2011, Safin became a member of the State Duma, where is he is representing Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.
A year later, he voted in support of a legislation banning the adoption of Russian orphans by US citizens.
Vitali Klitschko
Older brother of Wladimir, the duo dominated the heavyweight division for the best part of a decade.
He finished his career in 2012 with a record of 45 wins — 41 by KO — and just two defeats.
The Klitschko brothers openly supported Vickor Yuschenko in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, and Vitali was appointed an adviser following his victory 12 months later.
He then became the leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform party in 2010 which won 40 seats at the 2012 elections. Klitschko remains a key political figure and sees the EU as the "model for development".
Imran Khan
The former all-rounder is a Pakistani great who achieved 3,000 runs and took 300 wickets in 75 tests — the second fastest of all-time behind Ian Botham's 72.
While Khan also has the second-highest batting average, with 61.86 while regularly playing at No 6 in the order.
And, in 1996, he founded the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which roughly translates into English as "Pakistani Movement for Justice".
He led an unsuccessful campaign the 1997 general election as he lost his two seats but Khan's PTI emerged as the second largest party in 2013 and is now considered to be the fastest growing in the country.
Manny Pacquiao
Pacquiao is the only eight-division world champion in boxing history and is considered to be one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters of all-time.
He has 11 major world titles and is the first in history to win titles in four of the original eight weight classes: flyweight, featherweight, lightweight and welterweight.
The Filipino is also a military reservist and holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Reserve Force of the Philippine Army.
Pacquiao first ran for a seat in the country's House of Representatives in 2007 and in 2016 garnered 16million votes to finish seventh among the 12 new Senators.
At the proclamation ceremony, he was introduced as the "People's Champion", and his name was read out in the same slow tone as it would be for a bout, which drew loud cheers from the audience.
Kakha Kaladze
The former Milan left-back became the first Georgian to win the Champions League following his triumph in 2003.
He success caused so much fanfare back home, a special stamp bearing his image was issued.
After retiring in 2012, Kaladze became a member of opposition party "Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia" and was elected to parliament before being named Minister of Energy.
Initially, this caused quite a stir with claims of a conflict of interests due to his business interests the Georgia Hydropower Construction Company.
Earlier this year, he resigned from his post as Minister of Energy and was elected mayor of capital city Tbilisi.