Mohamed Kallon MOR (born 6 October 1979) is a Sierra Leonean football manager and former player. A striker, Kallon played for Inter Milan from 2001 to 2004, and is widely considered the most famous footballer from Sierra Leone.
Before playing for Inter, Kallon had short stints at Lugano in Switzerland and at the Italian clubs Bologna, Genoa, Cagliari, Reggina and Vicenza. After leaving Inter in 2004, Kallon played at Monaco for three years. Following a spell in Greece with AEK Athens, he played in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, China and India.
Kallon made 39 appearances for Sierra Leone national team and with 8 goals is their joint top goalscorer. He is the younger brother of former Sierra Leonean international footballers Kemokai Kallon and Musa Kallon.
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. 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 to distinguish him from his two elder brothers who also then played 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, Kallon signed with the local club, Old Edwardians of the Sierra Leone National Premier League. During the 1993–94 season, he scored four goals in 13 league games for Old Edwardians and became the youngest player to ever play and score in Sierra Leone National Premier League.
After the 1993–94 season, Kallon left Old Edwardians and signed for Lebanese club Tadamon Sour. 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, 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 1994–95 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. 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 AC 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.
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. He played his last match in league play on 11 August 2007 against Lorient, the second match of the season, before he was released by Monaco. He underwent a trial with Birmingham City in September 2007, after previously being linked with Derby County in July. However, Kallon failed to qualify for a work permit in England, as Sierra Leone ranked 79th in the FIFA World Rankings in September 1997, but the requirement was above 70th for non-EU internationals. In November 2007, he signed a pre-contract with Al Hilal, but this later collapsed.
Kallon signed a six-month contract with Greek club AEK Athens on 29 January 2008. He played for the capital club in the UEFA Cup 2007–08 round of 32 against Getafe, but AEK lost 4–1 on aggregate, with no goals from Kallon. He also played in the Super League Greece playoffs to determine qualification to European competition. He scored once in his three appearances, and AEK finished second to qualify for the following year's UEFA Cup.
Greek fans remember him especially for an excellent goal against PAOK in a 4–0 win, when he scored with a chip shot outside the box.
In August 2008, Kallon signed with UAE Pro League club Al-Shaab for the 2008–09 season. He was released from his contract after a few months due to poor performances.