Osei Kuffuor's contract on hold

Sports bi-weekly, Africa Sports writes that once again, Emmanuel Osei Kuffuor’s dream of earning the megabucks that he has long argued his talent deserves could fizzle out due to threats by Al-Ain club of the United Arab Emirates to pull out of the well publicised $500,000 deal.

The paper says it has learnt that the reigning Ghanaian footballer of the year has developed cold feet over the Al-Ain move and did not travel to the Emirates as scheduled last week for no specific reason.

The club is said to be furious and are threatening to call off the deal that would make Kuffuor $600,000 richer in the next three years. Should the Arab club carry out its threat, it would be the second time in one-year that Kuffuor’s dream of playing professional football outside the shores of Ghana has fallen through at the last minute.

He seemed very certain of going to Denmark but was stopped by Hearts who insisted they needed him for what turned out to be a successful Africa Cup Champions League campaign last season.

This time, Hearts officials say even they, do not know why Kuffuor is still in town.

While admitting that they are unhappy with some of the terms in the contract and the fact that Kuffuor put his signature to it when they had not scrutinised the documents, a source, within the Hearts management said they will do nothing to block Kuffuor’s move fully aware about how desperate he wants to play outside.

The paper however claims it learnt earlier on from Hearts insiders close to the deal that the club is unhappy with the contract terms and wanted the transaction off.