Carnival greets Hearts’ arrival

Several hundreds of chanting Accra Hearts of Oak fans last Wednesday had to wait for about five hours at the Kotoka International Airport before catching a glimpse of their heroes who triumphed over Esperance in the first leg CAF Champions League final in Tunis.

At exactly 3.30pm when the team was initially scheduled to touch down, the airport was all rainbow with several singing and drumming fans from various chapters of the club’s supporters groups and several dignitaries, including the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Enoch Teye Mensah.

But the jubilation faded away momentarily with the announcment that the team will arrive at 8pm in the night instead.

While some fans and officials left for their offices, others stayed on waiting to be part of the party that will first catch a glimpse of the history-making team.

The airport bounced back into activity of drumming and dancing again from about 6pm, some few hours before the team was scheduled to touch down with Egypt Air as excited fans started re-converging.

The festive scene took the form of a carnival with fans singing the praise of the players, the technical team and their most succesful club chairman, Harry Zakkour and other officials.

When the plane carrying the team finally touched down, the airport erupted into a huge choir of Hearts’ popular tune, “Auro, Auro, Auro” as fans gathered behind the protective wire mesh that separated them from the tarmac, to steal a peep at their idols.

But the frenzy even got wilder and turned into a brief moment of commotion as the players emerged from the plane and made their way to where the fans were to acknowledge their cheers.

Fans who had waited so long for this hour in the clubs history could not hide their excitement as several of them attempted climbing the wire mesh to lift high the players.

That attempt was swiftly halted by the Police who prevented them from bringing down the protective device.

However, the story was different when the bus carrying the team and officials got off the airport tarmac and headed to the club’s camping base at Mendskrom.

For quite some few minutes outside the airport, the motorcade-driven bus was held hostage by the carousing fans, who tried desperately to interact with the players.