On June 20, 2025, Accra Hearts of Oak finally announced to the world the appointment of Mas-Ud Didi Dramani as the man to lead them into the future.
Having always had a soft spot for his new club since his younger days, Didi Dramani thought to add to his backroom staff one of his mentees, Abdul Gazale.
Gazale, once a former coach at Asante Kotoko, was the model player for Dramani when he was coaching his colts team in Tamale.
Didi Dramani shared how he often jogged about 5 kilometres with Gazale, to and fro for training, showing how disciplined his mentee was and still is.
“Coaching is all about imagination, so I put my imagination into how I want to play. Gazale and co. were my players at the time. He [Gazale] was so passionate… We lived in the same area. We would jog about 5 km to training and the same back,” he said on Max TV’s “1Top” podcast.
The Phobians’ coach couldn’t hide his admiration for Gazale, who left Basake Holy Stars as head coach to work with him as an assistant.
According to Dramani, he is still mentoring the young coach because of the big vision he has for him, as he jokingly said, “He [Gazale] has not learnt a quarter of where I want him to go.”
