Former CEO of Hearts of Oak, Harry Zakkour has hailed late President
Atta Mills for his humility and respect for everyone but insists the former
football administrator and hockey player was also strict. Zakkour who disclosed
that he knew Prof. Mills before they both worked at Hearts Oak is also insistent
that it cannot be true the assertion by critics that the former law teacher wasn’t
strict.

“I worked with him and I tell you he has charisma. He is down
to earth to everybody. He’s slow to talk but he makes his point. He knows how
to talk to everybody. He always gave me a good advice, he was an honest person.
He was a very simple person,” Harry Zakkour said live on TV3.
He continued: “I could remember once in 1992 when I travelled
to Algeria with Hearts of Oak. At the time I was Director of Operations and
something happened in Algeria that infuriated me and I went off. I was annoyed
and the report was brought to Accra. He called me and criticized me for what I did.
He told me; ‘You went there not on behalf of Hearts of Oak, you went on the Ghana
flag. You shouldn’t have reacted that way.’ And I apologized.”
Mr. Zakkour also says that the late Atta Mills was an
all-round sportsman who loved many a sporting discipline. “He talks about
football, cricket, hockey, he loved sports. I also got to know he was a
Manchester United fan sow e used to talk about Man United games a lot,” Harry
Zakkour recounted.