Despite enjoying the best of his football career at Accra Hearts of Oak, it has never been a secret where the heart of former Ghanaian International General Emmanuel Osei Kuffour lies when it comes to the club he supports.
On countless occasions, the player never failed to express his love for Asante Kotoko. This seems to have caused the player a lot of disaffection with rival clubs, especially Hearts of Oak supporters.
Kuffour has revealed to Revolt Radio ,based in Columbus Ohio, that he has always been a professional player and played his heart out for every club, no matter the opposition he faced.
He debunked the notion that he played it “soft” whenever he faced Asante Kotoko, seen as his beloved club. Interestingly, Kuffour led Hearts to inflict some painful defeats on Kotoko whilst wearing the Phobia colours but he was never spared of insults and attacks from fans.
“There are painful moments I had in my football career, and I recall some of them sometimes and laugh, but sometimes it’s sad. For example, Hearts supporters sometimes insult me for playing it soft whenever I was in a hearts jersey against Kotoko. Meanwhile, some Kotoko supporters also criticised me for being a fabulous fan, but playing above myself whenever I came against Kotoko.
“There is this interesting story of how I slept on the day Hearts of Oak won the Confederation Cup against Kotoko in Kumasi. Maybe it adds a twist to the story, but it’s normal. It was a great day for Hearts, and we really celebrated that night ,though some of us felt sad for some of our colleagues at Kotoko, so we went out with them to sit somewhere at a pub.
Out of nowhere, a well-built man appeared at the pub and tore my shirt into pieces screaming sadly why I helped Hearts to defeat Kotoko his beloved club and that I deserve to play for Kotoko rather. He then gave me a very nice lacaste shirt to replace the one he destroyed. I put it on and realized it was a Kotoko shirt.
On our way back to the Hearts team hotel that night ,I had to remove the Kotoko shirt because you know what will have happened . I was with Dan Quaye,Joe Ansah,Charles Allotey and others ,but I had no shirt on as I removed it when I got closer to the hotel but I never threw it away.
I slept with the Kotoko jersey in my room on the night I won the Confederation trophy with hearts. I hid the Kotoko shirt nicely in my bag the next day and kept it, “he revealed. Kuffour later moved to Asante Kotoko and even captained them to a league trophy under Nana Bantamahene’s administration.
Kuffour also revealed another incident that hurts him most in his career, saying
“I scored the last goal when Hearts defeated Kotoko 4-0, but Hearts supporters insulted me, claiming I never wanted to score the goal because I am a Kotoko supporter.
That is a lie because I wanted to dribble the players first before scoring,and yes I got about four Kotoko players falling down first before scoring that goal”,he said on the M’asem programme hosted by Cee,a gospel singer of Mentor Fame.
Kuffour is regarded as one of Ghana s great players and had even captained the Black Stars at a point ,belonging to the 64 Batallion squad of Jones Attuquafio.
