26: Christopher Wreh, Arsenal, Merlin's Premier League 99 Official Sticker Collection


One of the best stories of the 1996/97 Premier League season was the signing of Ali Dia by Southampton amidst an injury crisis. A university student, claiming to be former Ballon D’or winner George Weah, called the Southampton manager, Graeme Souness, to recommend his ‘cousin’ as the solution to Southampton’s problems up front. Dia signed on a one-month deal, played approximately 50 minutes of Southampton’s 2-0 loss to Leeds United, and disappeared into obscurity. Despite being regularly listed amongst the worst transfers in football history and described by Saints’ legend, Matt Le Tissier, as “running around like Bambi on ice”, Dia holds a firm place in the hearts of many football fans.

In the absence of live football the BBC has come up with a few temporary solutions to ensure we don’t all suffer withdrawal symptoms including classic matches, with even more classic kits, and Top 10 debates where Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Ian Wright decide on the best ten players for a certain category. During their discussion of the best goalkeepers of the Premier League era, Ian Wright was up in arms at his inability to score against Peter Schmeichel in meaningful competition: “Christopher Wreh scored against Schmeichel - people don't even know who he is - and I didn't manage to do it.”


So who was Christopher Wreh? The former Monaco striker joined his old manager, Arsene Wenger, at Arsenal in the summer of 1997 for £300,000 and was a useful squad player as the Gunners marched to a Premier League and FA Cup double. He made the starting line up for the 1998 FA Cup final, a 2-0 win over Newcastle, and scored the second goal in a 3-0 win over Manchester United, against the legendary Peter Schmeichel, in Arsenal’s Charity Shield win at the start of the 1998/99 season. A loss of form and fitness coincided with the arrival of Davor Suker and Thierry Henry at Highbury and pushed Wreh further down the pecking order leading to his exit from the club in 2000. Subsequent attempts to revitalise his career in Britain were further hampered by injury and he finished his career in the Indonesian leagues in 2010.

Between the years 1995 and 2002, Wreh also earned 36 caps for his native Liberia and scored 11 goals in a potent forward pairing alongside his cousin George Weah. This is not a typo. Unlike the aforementioned Ali Dia, who was actually Senegalese, Wreh is the cousin of the legendary George Weah. As any of us with impressive older siblings know, comparison between family members is a regular feature of your life. You’ve got to feel for Christopher Wreh here. George Weah was a three-time African Footballer of the Year, won leagues and cups in France, Italy and England as well as being crowned the best player in the world in 1995. Cousin Christopher’s contribution to the double at Arsenal suddenly looks ordinary.

Even after retirement, poor Christopher Wreh is being eclipsed by his celebrated cousin. While he has managed Liberia’s under-20s, and now serves as an assistant coach to the full national team, cousin George is the President of the country. It’s just not fair is it? Especially when in England, a country where Wreh won a league and cup double, he is not even remembered as George Weah’s cousin, let alone for his contributions to an impressive Arsenal side. Maybe Ian Wright had a point about Wreh but, in the Liberian’s defence, you’ve got to have been a decent striker to have scored against Peter Schmeichel in his prime.

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