Accra, Jan 15. GNA - Accra Hearts Oak will participate in this year's Confederation of African Football Confederation (CAF) Champions League without the services of their stalwart defender Emmanuel Osei and striker Wisdom Abbey.
Information gathered by the GNA Sports revealed that the club submitted a list of 27 players to CAF through the Ghana Football Association (GFA) on Thursday, January 15, to meet the dead line for the submission of Hearts team without its two key players.
The absence of Osei's name on the list is said to be as result of his demand for 300 million cedis as enticement fee from the club together with 400 million cedis from his former club, division one side, Suhum Maxbees.
Osei who is currently in Turkey undergoing trials is said to have not appended his signature to the CAF card before leaving due to the price tag placed on him.
The defender who featured for the National Under-23 team, the Black Meteors against their Algerian counterparts in Algiers before leaving for Turkey could not return for negotiations as at the time of filling the final list for the competition on January 15.
Osei joined Hearts on loan at the beginning of the 2003 soccer season from Maxbees and shot himself to fame and glory and put up impressive performance in the LG Top Four Tourney, the preliminaries of the champions league and the premier league in the 2003.
He was reported to have shown interest in joining the camp of Hearts archrivals, Kumasi Asante Kotoko at the end of last season. The player is yet to arrive in the country and it is not known what his fate would be as Kotoko also sent their list for the competition to CAF on the same day.
In a related development, striker Wisdom Abbey is also missing from the list of the 27-man squad.
A source said Osei and Abbey might be included in the list if the club advance in the Champions League.
This would be possible if Hearts, Maxbees and the player are able to come to terms with the transfer fee whilst Abbey's performance in the Top Four Tourney together with this year's league would grant him a place in the team for the Champions League.
limelight in 2002 and scoring ten goals failed to impress in the 2003 season scoring only two goals and being a victim of near misses in the season.
However information reaching GNA Sports revealed that the 27- man squad includes 20 old players and seven newly recruited players. The old players are James Nanor, Acquah Harrison, Emmanuel Osei Kuffour, Daniel Ziem Quaye, Daniel Oppong, Yaw Amankwah Mireku, Kwame Antwi, Frank Kornu, Lawrence Adjah Tetteh, Bernard Don Bortey, Kwabena Boafo, Louis Agyeman, Ablade Morgan, Eben Dida Armah, Lawrence Adjei, Eric Nyarko, Nasiru Ghani, Daniel Coleman, Sammy Adjei with Francis Bossman returning from a two year loan spell from Berekum Arsenals. The new players on the list are Albert Nii Larbi of Liberty Professionals, Samed Abdul Samed of Prestea Mine Stars and Taju Dini of Heart of Lions.
The rest are Goldfields James Boateng, Prince Tagoe of Maamobi Mitdjyland, Adjebu Lawson and Micheal Donkor of Power FC.