The former football star George Weah has waited 12 years to become president of Liberia. With his dream now within touching distance, fans danced and sang in his honour at a Monrovia stadium on Saturday.

Weah goes head-to-head with Joseph Boakai, Liberia’s vice-president, on 26 December in a long-delayed runoff for the presidency, with hopes that Christmas celebrations do not stop his legions of young and poor supporters from voting.

“Weah is our man. Weah for president,” people screamed in the stadium over a cacophony of rumba and vuvuzelas, jumping from pick-up trucks that brought Liberians to the capital from all corners of the west African country.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ahead of the rally on Saturday, George Weah said: ‘I have the people on my side.’ Photograph: SEYLLOU/AFP/Getty Images

Speaking at his residence before the rally, Weah was emphatic about his chances with just three days to go. “You know, I’ve been in competitions – tough ones, too – and I came out victorious. So I know Boakai cannot defeat me,” he said. “I have the people on my side.”

Samuel Kanyon Doe stadium, named after the Liberian president killed by rebels in 1990, can welcome up to 35,000 people. By early afternoon it was already filling up as the stage was prepared for the man known as Ambassador Weah.

“The mood is good, very good, a solid mood. After 12 years of hard work we are about to reach our people with the leadership of this country. We are still making sure that the polls are well attended,” said Wilson Tarpeh, campaign manager of Weah’s Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).

“We are confident but we are not complacent. We know we will win,” he added.

Among the T-shirts, stickers and pins that slowly formed a sea of Weah’s image, D Joshua Zinnah sat in the stands as ice-cold beers were handed out. He explained why the 51-year-old football hero had such a hold on the nation.

“I expect freedom of speech, I expect job creation and I believe 100% that George Manneh Weah is the only person that can redeem us from this kind of stress that we are in,” he said, adding that Weah would bring a “better educational system” to a country where more than half of children do not finish school.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Another Weah supporter at the Monrovia stadium. Photograph: Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA

Sophie Doe, a student CDC member, said Weah “can encourage the people” amid a stuttering economy and governance tarred by corruption.

Weah is better known abroad for his meteoric career in top-flight European football teams such as AC Milan and PSG in the 1990s, but he has funded school places for thousands of children in Liberia, and carefully crafted an image as a professional politician after being elected a senator in 2014.

The country’s elite say openly he is unqualified to lead, but the story of the boy who learned to kick a football in one of Africa’s worst slums and went on to conquer the world’s best leagues is a compelling one.

His supporters remained calm and patient as Boakai filed legal complaints with the supreme court alleging the first round of voting on 10 October was marred by fraud. The court rejected the allegations, which held up voting for seven weeks.

Weah spent the time meeting several west African heads of state and a celebrity Nigerian evangelical preacher, who gave his blessing to the only African winner of the Ballon D’Or. He even managed a public appearance with Boakai’s boss on Thursday – the woman they both seek to succeed as president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

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Sirleaf has attracted public criticism from Boakai’s supporters for her failure to campaign for him despite two terms spent governing together. Her decision to appear with Weah was seen as a not-so-subtle signal in some quarters, given she has not appeared in public with Boakai for months.

But Weah’s supporters are cautious: he enjoyed a hefty lead in 2005 when he stood against Sirleaf, only to lose in the second round against expectations.

In Monrovia, everything is still to play for.