It is PHOBIA: Hearts of Oak are Champions of Ghana

The wait, the pain, the disappointments and the tears of the fans have been assuaged. This was coming, it was made and it has manifested. The marriage between Samuel Boadu and the Rainbow club was a love affair that was meant to yield fruits. The food has been cooked and well served at home and in a special way in front of their teeming fans. What a masterclass of a season? What an epitome of a season? What a moment to be a Phobia?

This is what will be running through the minds of every Phobia even as the victory party goes deep into the night and the day. They have laboured and suffered for this, with many coaches and management staff, with many architects of the game but as it is, the title has finally gotten back to where it belongs: into the hands of the ‘Masters’ and the tears are now that of joy, no more pain.

Accra Hearts of Oak have been crowned the Champions of Ghana Premier League for the first time since 2009 when they last won the league title. It has been over a decade since the fans of the club last celebrated this and during that time, they watched their rivals pop the champagne, do the parade and dance in the wild. What was for the Phobians was sullen sunken faces, dotted across the streets in a crowd of their adversaries but it has been turned, the dots become the lines of litter that will now decorate the capital, Accra and across many towns and villages countrywide.

It was a season the club started without any hope of winning the league and the best any Phobia fan would have expected was to be part of the top four but the boys have moved beyond expectation. At the end of the first round, Hearts of Oak were in 5th position, below Medeama, Dreams FC, Great Olympics and table toppers Karela United. The gap between them and the top was a whopping 7 points.

Before the midway, they had to replace Edward Nii Odoom two matches into the new season, and new coach Kosta Papic took over but resigned after 10 matches leaving them in a coaching crisis. Samuel Nii Noi stepped in as interim boss and was replaced later with Samuel Boadu who before then was with Medeama SC. That gamble is the masterpiece that turned them from a chasing pack into the leading pack and now the champions.

It took them, four coaches, within a season to get here but it is all worth it and there is no sweeter victory than clinching it from the hands of their nemesis Kumasi Asante Kotoko.

For now, everything should be on hold. The champagne cannot stay any longer in the fridge, the ‘jamma’ cannot be held back anymore. Let the music flow and the party begin. If they ask who is in town and causing the traffic, tell them it is the Phobia. And when next you meet Boadu in town, that man deserves respect. His name is now among the best ad when the roll is called, he is assured of his place in there.

By: Clifford Adumbire | myactiveonline.com