GOALKEEPER Sannie Mohammed of Kumasi Asante Kotoko wept on radio last Wednesday after revealing he had been told that the club bought him from Accra Hearts of Oak just to spoil his career as punishment for denying them the opportunity to win the 2004 CAF Confederation Cup.
According to him, a ball boy in the club told him that the reason why the technical team had refused to feature him in matches stemmed from the fact that Kotoko officials were peeved at his penalty saves that denied Asante Kotoko the Confederation Cup.
Goalkeeper Sannie, who was in post when Hearts defeated Asante Kotoko on penalties to win the maiden edition of the Confederation Cup, was in superb shape that day, saving two of the kicks to rob the highly-rated Asante Kotoko of victory.
Sannie, who was speaking on Angel FM sports, broke down in tears after revealing the story, causing the interviewer, Bright Kankam Boadu, to suspend the interview for about two minutes for the goalkeeper to regain his composure.
The goalkeeper said, “My heart is bleeding, and I’m highly disappointed if that is the way football officials can treat someone whose life depends on football.”
He indicated that he joined Asante Kotoko with the hope of progressing in his career, “but from the way things are going, I don’t think I have any future with the club.”
He stated, while trying to hold back his tears, that since he joined Kotoko more than a year ago he had been featured just thrice in matches that the team had played.
But, according to him, he had been very regular at training and believed that he was in shape to keep the post, adding that he had never had problems with the coach.
“This has made me to believe that I was bought to be destroyed as a punishment,” he stressed.
Sannie said in the current season, all the other three goalkeepers in the team had been given the opportunity to keep the post and wondered why he was the one yet to be given the opportunity.
“In Hearts I was given all the space to exhibit my potential, and everybody knows what I did for the club,” he said.
He stated that it is a credit to play for Kotoko, but when a player is registered in a bid only to be benched, that could not be said to be anything good.
“I prefer to be in a club that would pay me GH¢20 a month and get regular playing time to a big club that will pay me so much only to keep me out of play,” he said.
The goalkeeper further revealed on the programme that Kotoko’s goalkeepers’ trainer, Joseph Carr, also told him that he (Sannie) had been using juju against the other goalkeepers.
Sannie quoted Carr as saying that his (Carr’s) pastor in Cape Coast had told him that one of the goalkeepers in the club who had not been getting playing time was the one using juju against the other goalkeepers, resulting in their unimpressive output in the league,
“And I know that the goalkeeper who has not been keeping the post is me, so something struck me that Carr has something sinister against me,” he said.
Reacting to the allegation, Joe Carr admitted that his pastor told him about one of the goalkeepers in the club working spiritually against the others.
He said he trusted his pastor and as a result he (Carr) convened a meeting of all goalkeepers and told them about the pastor’s revelation.
The goalkeepers’ trainer however denied the allegation that he mentioned Saani as the one in the centre of the juju.
“I just told them one of them was doing that and any of them who knew he was the one should stop,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment