When I first heard news about the election of Liberia’s soon-to-be new president, all I could get from various reports was that he was a footballer. Thankfully, with my exquisite college education, I was able to deduce that the man in question, Mr. George Weah, was not, in fact, a participant in that ruddy, bloody, all-too-dangerous-must-be-banned game of American football, but rather a soccer player, as we term it on this side of the pond.

Which I found curious because the media seemed to downplay his achievements in founding his current political party, the Congress for Democratic Change, and his election as a senator to the Liberian Senate in 2011.

The key to his victory, it seemed in many commentators’ minds, was Weah’s celebrity. And, while I am inclined to agree with them, I believe it’s important not to let the man disappear inside the myth.

Hence is exactly why celebrity can be such a seductive and slippery force in the world of politics. It’s ability to simplify, to reduce, to put in plain terms is so appealing, that often other incongruities will go overlooked.

Take, for example, our own Donald Trump.

Whether you love or hate the man (or fall somewhere in between) it’s clear that the familiarity and allure of his celebrity (at least in part) created a power unmatchable by any of his primary opponents, or even by the infamous jilted former first lady who was his opponent in the general election.

Never mind the fact that the kind of celebrity that Donald Trump possesses is infamous in its own right, emanating largely from trashy tabloid scandals and a trashy reality TV show that plays at the idea of building business acumen in everyday joes and (you guessed it) celebrities themselves.

Never mind the fact of the repeated and consistent claims of sexual misconduct leveled at the man. Never mind the subversion of the truth that has become all too prominent, and only grows in scope the deeper one delves into the ever-darker cabal that is Trumpism.

In November 2016, he was still elected president of the United States.

While Trump may be on his own plane in terms of conduct, the power of celebrity, a dazzling, small screen braggadocio, is a device that has been tapped into across party lines. The other famous president that used his acting skills to sweep into the White House, Ronald Reagan. The (recently disgraced) former senator and Saturday Night Live fixture Al Franken. And a pair of governors in former WWE star Jesse Ventura (Minnesota) and actor and body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger (California).

And clearly this trend is not a solely American occurrence, as the presence of people like Philippines Sen. Manny Pacquiao (also a professional boxer) and now George Weah demonstrate.

Now, none of this is to say that George Weah will be a statesman in the same fashion as Trump. It is to say though that in times of uncertainty it is not uncommon for people to reach for something that is familiar to them. Someone who has accomplished great things, though often in a different realm than the body politic, so as not to persist in the stagnate ideas that bred that uncertainty in the first place.

Reagan and Trump won the presidency after denouncing faltering economies presided over by their Democratic predecessors. Schwarzenegger came to the governorship after only the second successful recall attempt of a governor in American history.

And now George Weah, an ex-footballer, is set to be inaugurated as president of Liberia, being only the second person to be elected to that title peacefully since the end of the Liberian Civil Wars.

Truthfully, I don’t know how Weah will fare as a statesman, especially in leading an entire country. I wish him well. My only plea is that in regarding him the media and the people not lose their heads. He is a comfortable figure. He is, to many, a hero. That is fair. But now he is the head of state, and that is the job his tenure should be judged on.