Liberia's president-elect George Weah said on Saturday that improving the welfare of Liberians would rank as his topmost priority when he takes office in January.

Weah, who spoke for the first time after he was declared the winner of the presidential run-off election on Friday, vowed to assemble a government that will be dedicated to delivering a new lease on life for the Liberian people.

"Those wishing to cheat the Liberian people through the menace of corruption will have no place in my government," the former soccer star said at his Coalition for Democratic Change Party headquarters in the capital city of Monrovia.

Weah said his administration will build on the institutional gains of the government led by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and called on Liberians in foreign countries to return home for a new and better experience.

"I declare publicly today that transforming the lives of all Liberians is a singular mission," he said.

Weah is to be sworn in on Jan. 22, replacing Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who in 2006 took the helm of the West African country first founded for freed US slaves.

Weah will emerge as Liberia's 25th president.

Weah, 51, who starred in top-flight football at Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan in the 1990s and briefly at Chelsea and Manchester City before entering politics in 2002, won 61.5 percent of the ballot, taking 14 of Liberia's 15 counties.

Vice President Joseph Boakai said he had called Weah to congratulate him and appealed for unity, saying: "My love for the country is far (more) profound than my desire for the presidency." The White House called the vote "a major milestone for Liberia's democracy" while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres applauded "all Liberians for the successful completion of the elections process, which was conducted in a peaceful environment."