For many Hearts of Oak fans, Harry Zakour is the greatest chairman in the history of the club after leading them to African trophies and crushing their rivals Asante Kotoko in the transfer market.
Harry Zakour was a torn in the flesh of Asante Kotoko during his reign as the chairman of Accra Hearts of Oak and despite the Porcupine's strong financial muscles, he always managed to bully them in the transfer market.
To many Asante Kotoko fans, how the club lost the likes of Charles Taylor, Emmanuel Osei Kuffour and Ishamel Addo to Accra Hearts of Oak despite completing the deals is still a mystery.
Former Asante Kotoko CEO, Herbert Mensah was mostly criticized for how he allowed himself to be bullied in the market by "broke" Hearts of Oak.
However, Harry Zakour revealed in an interview that while their rivals only relied on their financial power, they used the personal relationship they had with the people managing the players.
“Charles Taylor was in Great Olympics and my friend was Ade Coker(The Chairman of Olympics at the time) but when I heard my good friend Herbert had bought Taylor, I questioned Ade on why he will stab me in the back. He then told me that Kotoko had offered 80m old currency which was very huge at that time so there was nothing he could do about it, so I decided to take a new approach”
Harry Zakkour upon getting the news that Kotoko has paid 80m old cedis for the transfer of Charles Taylor had to involve a higher authority.
“I went to report Ade to my senior brother, Hon. E.T Mensah who was the Sports Minister and a staunch Phobian that Ade is on the verge of selling Taylor to Asante Kotoko. After calling Ade to come to his office, E.T. Mensah offered to 100m old cedis to him and took Taylor's card, something Kotoko failed to do after making the deposit.”
He added that they used the same method but a different approach to sign the most inform player at that time, Emmanuel Osei Kuffour.
“The same thing happened with Osei Koffour, Kotoko bought but there were some small issues regarding the money so I, Nii Ayi Bontey, and Alhaji Hearts had to drive to Cape Coast to hijack the deal from Kotoko,” he told Joy FM.
Emmanuel Osei Koffour and Charles Taylor played a key role in winning the Phobian's first-ever CAF Champions League trophy.
Also, watch this week's episode of the GhanaWeb Sports Debate in the post below:
Former Accra Hearts of Oak duo, Charles Taylor and Osei Kuffour