Former Hearts of Oak coach Kim Grant blocked the club from using black magic “juju” during his short tenure at the club, it has emerged.
The former Ghana international warned against the use of the unorthodox spiritual method to aid his team.
The club’s long-standing team manager Nii Sabahn Quaye has revealed the 47-year-old thwarted any attempt to introduce ‘luck’ to the team.
The Phobians have been revived since the gaffer was sacked after picking seven points from a possible 9.
The produced a breathtaking display to come-from-behind to beat Liberty Professionals 2-1 in Dansoman to spark a wave of optimism in the team.
And team manager Saban Quaye has revealed the former coach prevented the club from engaging in spirituality.
“His (Kim Grant) background frowns at juju so there were lot of things he stopped us from doing,” Saban Quaye told Kumasi-based Kessben FM.
“Luck plays a major role in football so if he (Grant) oppose to ways and means you cant do it.
“I had one on one meetings with him on many occasions but he just didn’t buy to my idea so we couldn’t do anything about it.
“Hearts and Kotoko are big teams so once a player is signed the whole family have the perception that he is wealthy therefore the witches and wizard in his family can work to bring him down so as a manager, you have to protect the players against such things. The players are vulnerable therefore they need protection but I couldn’t pass by Grant because he was my boss,” he revealed.
For most Ghanaians a football match is a spellbinding affair. In anybody’s book this is the country’s favourite sport; it pulls huge crowds and has earned the country international acclaim.
But it is not just the goal-scorers and team coaches who bask in glory when a local or national team wins.
Behind the scenes marabouts – or juju men – also claim credit.
Armed, they say, with supernatural powers, these witchdoctors prepare charms that they believe help propel teams to victory and confuse opponents – and that is what Hearts have been used to in the past.
But the emergence of Grant put an end to the spirituality as he banned the use of black magic in his team – which others believe accounted for the team’s downward spiral during his tenure.
The Phobians are back in the stables when they host sworn rivals Asante Kotoko in the biggest match of the 2019/20 Ghana Premier League season in Accra.
Source: Ghanasoccernet