Mohamed Kallon

Mohamed Kallon MOR (born 6 October 1979) is a Sierra Leonean football manager and former player who played as a striker.

Kallon was born on 6 October 1979 in Kenema, Sierra Leone.

Kallon is the younger brother to former Sierra Leone international footballers Kemokai Kallon and Musa Kallon.

Mohamed Kallon attended primary school in Kenema and completed his secondary education at St. Edwards Secondary School in Freetown.

During his early international career for Sierra Leone, Kallon was given the nickname Small Kallon by Sierra Leonean football fans because he was the youngest of the three Kallon brothers in the Sierra Leone national team.

After he completed his form three levels of education (grade 9 in the U.S.) from St. Edwards Secondary School in Freetown in 1994, Kallon signed with the local club, Old Edwardians of the Sierra Leone National Premier League at the age of 15.

During the 1994–95 season, he struck fifteen goals in 24 league games for Old Edwardians and became the youngest player to ever play and score in Sierra Leone National Premier League.

After the 1994–95 season, Kallon left Old Edwardians and signed for Lebanese club Tadamon Sour.

Mohamed Kallon is indeed spotted by Ali Abdullah, while playing a game with friends, on a beach in Freetown.

Son of a Lebanese diplomat living in Sierra Leone - Lebanon then already had many businessmen in West Africa - Abdullah praised Kallon's qualities to several relatives, and managed to obtain several trials for him in Lebanon.

Eager to discover foreign countries, and pushed by his father, Mohamed Kallon accepts the offer and travels with Ali Abdullah, only 15 years old.

First on the side of Ajman, where the test turns out to be inconclusive, before finally catching the eye of the staff of Tadamon Sour, the club from the city of Tire.

Kallon will thus spend the 1994-1995 season there, scoring 15 goals in 24 games, despite six difficult first months, due in particular to the cold Lebanese winter.

He spent one season with Spånga in Stockholm, Sweden.

He was then signed by Inter Milan.

He was then loaned to Swiss Super League club AC Lugano, Serie A club Bologna and Cagliari, as well as Serie B club Genoa.

He was farmed to Reggina and Vicenza in a co-ownership deal for an undisclosed fee and 9,000 billion lire respectively (€4,648,112).

He played with Cristiano Zanetti at Cagliari, whom he later worked with again at Inter Milan.

After the abolition of the non-EU quota for each team halfway through the 2000–01 season, Kallon returned to Italian club Inter Milan before the start of the 2001–02 season., for a reported 8,500 billion lire transfer fee (€4,389,884).

With Christian Vieri, Ronaldo, Álvaro Recoba, Adriano, Hakan Şükür and Nicola Ventola also in the side, Kallon was originally a third or fourth choice striker.

He played for Inter Milan from 2001 to 2004, competing for spots with players such as Christian Vieri, Ronaldo, Álvaro Recoba, Adriano, Hakan Şükür and Nicola Ventola.

He is widely considered the most famous footballer from Sierra Leone.

Before playing for Inter, Kallon had one-year stints at Serie B club Genoa, and the Serie A clubs Bologna, Cagliari, Reggina and Vicenza.

But injuries to Ronaldo and Recoba meant that Kallon played 29 Serie A matches, scoring nine goals and becoming the team's second highest scorer of the 2001–02 Serie A season, behind Vieri, as the club narrowly missed out on the league title, finishing in third place, also reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup.

He played nine times scoring five goals in Serie A in 2002–03 season due to injuries in August and February, as the team managed a second-place finish in the league.

Kallon returned to the side in May after Gabriel Batistuta was injured in April.

He also played both legs of the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League semi-final against A.C. Milan as Batistuta was unable to register.

He played in both games as a second-half substitute, for Álvaro Recoba and Hernán Crespo respectively.

Kallon tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone after the Serie A match against Udinese on 27 September 2003 and was banned from football for eight months.

Kallon then struggled to get into the starting eleven during the 2003–04 season, primarily due to the rise of young Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins and the return of Brazilian ace Adriano.

After leaving Inter in 2004, Kallon played at Monaco for three years.

He subsequently had short stints in Greece, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and China.

He made 39 appearances for the Sierra Leone national team during his career.

Kallon is the younger brother of former Sierra Leonean international footballers Kemokai Kallon and Musa Kallon.

Kallon signed a four-year contract with Monégasque club Monaco before the start of the 2004–05 season, as the UEFA Champions League runners-up had lost Dado Pršo and Fernando Morientes.

He was impressive during his first season at Monaco, but quickly fell out with French manager Didier Deschamps, and was relegated to the bench in March 2005.

He moved on loan to Saudi club Al-Ittihad on 29 July 2005.

He helped the team win the 2005 AFC Champions League, leading the competition with six goals scored, including goals in each legs of the semi-final and final respectively.

He also played at the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship with Al-Ittihad, before returning to Monaco in 2006.

He played 12 Ligue 1 matches in his last full season with Monaco during the 2006–07 campaign.