On 15th August, 2022. at exactly 10:40pm, I got the information that ,highly rated defender Konadu Yiadom, has finally signed for Hearts of Oak.
This brought to an end the drama of the day, as to which of the two giants of GPL will capture the former West Africa Football Academy Captain.
This sparked wild jubilation among the supporters of Hearts .
Little did they know that was just the beginning of a long battle between the agent of Konadu Yiadom and Accra Hearts of Oak.
A day after the transfer Deadline, the agent and manager of the player, Joe Abu Salam in a radio interview said categorically that, Konadu Yiadom has not registered for the Phobians because the club failed to honor their part of the agreement of paying the full amount of the transfer fee before the player can be registered.
Joe Abu Salam had taken an initial five thousand dollars ($5,000) from an agreed fee of thirty thousand dollars (30,000) when the pre-contract was signed over a year ago.
The manager demanded the full balance in meeting that lasted about 7 hours on deadline day, from 11am to 6pm .
However, he was offered Ghc 30,000 instead which he rejected.
Now ,how did the transfer of Konadu Yiadom get here in the first place? Lets get into the juicy bit of the story and follow the narrative.
Why the Pre-Contract?
In the early stages of the first transfer window of the 2021-22 season, CEO of Kotoko Nana Yaw Amponsah and Joe Abu Salam had discussions on the players possible move to Kotoko but the deal broke down because the two parties could not agree on the value of the player.
The player was offered to Hearts, this time with Asubonteng as part of the deal but Hearts agreed to sign both players. This is where it gets interesting .
WAFA then sent a copy of their contract to the manager indicating that it’s left with one more season on the boy’s contract (Hearts were negotiating with the agent because they all thought both Yiadom and Asubonteng were free agents) even though the two players had already completed their medicals.
Hearts completed the Asubonteng transfer and agreed with the manager for Yiadom to run down his contract with WAFA so they can sign him as a free agent the following transfer window .
A pre-contract was signed between Hearts, the player and his agent Joe Abu Salam.
Why Did Kotoko come in again?
After signing the pre contract and Yiadom running down his contract at WAFA, one would think that this is a straight forward deal but No, Joe Salam takes Yiadom to the office of a Kotoko Board Member, Alhaji Lamini at Tema to discuss the possibility of Yiadom joining Kotoko.
In that meeting, Joe Abu Salam admitted to Alhaji Lamini that he has taken a part payment of five thousand dollars ($5000)from Hearts and if the deal with Kotoko goes through he will reimburse Togbe(After the meeting Vincent Odotey Sowah called Alhaji Lamini to warn him to stay away from their player).
Kotoko’s interest in Yiadom reached a crescendo when their Captain Ganiyu sent them a letter for the termination of his contract.
Deadline Day Drama
The day before the deadline day, officials of Kotoko and representatives of Yiadom met at East Legon to conclude the deal for Konadu Yiadom, in the course of the meeting, Hearts officials kept calling Joe Abu Salam and when they finally got through to him, they agreed to pay the full transfer fee the next day which was the transfer deadline day.
Joe Abu Salam went to the East Legon meeting knowing fully well the player will play for Hearts and not Kotoko.
Deadline day and what should have been a very simple process dragged because ,Officials of Hearts ,instead of paying twenty five thousand dollars ($25000) ,gave Joe Abu Salam Thirty Thousand cedis (GHs30,000) which he rejected and set in motion the drama we saw,play out on radio.
It is also curious to ask why ,Hearts were paying this much for a free agent? when the boy had run down his contract at WAFA, it’s instructive to also note that ,a pre contract was signed.
Why didn’t Hearts negotiate to WAFA if they were ready to pay this much for the services of the boy? You will agree with me that ,since it was left with only a year on his contract ,the fee would have been way below what they agreed to for the boy today?
Hearts played their first game of the season without Konadu Yiadom ,even though the club unveiled him 2 days to the start of the new season.
The lad did not start against Aduana in Dormaa ,because Hearts have not honored a promise they made to the boy of paying him Ghc 10,000.
On the matter of the transfer fee,Togbe has given Joe Abu Salam assurance that, he will get the money at the end of September. Togbe wants the deal completed because, in his own words, the supporters will not forgive him ,if they are not able to complete this deal.
I hope this drama will come to an end soon,so Konadu Yiadom can enjoy his football.
Peace out ✌️.