In my country in Sierra Leone there is a terrorist group that kidnaps children to turn them into soldiers. My parents were afraid it could happen to me, so they decided to let me leave. It was hard, I didn’t want to, but it was the thing to do.These are the words of Yayah Kallon, the boy who went through hell to reach Italy and discover his football talent.Genoa’s forward only arrived in Italy by boat in 2016 when he was 15 years old. Between leaving home and setting foot on Italian soil, this lad has had to walk across the hot sand and breathe through a little hole – while he was driven for a thousand kilometres from Benghazi to Tripoli in a booth of a car along with four other children.Yayah Kallon, 20. Incredible story❤️Fled Sierra Leone at 14 from terrorists who kidnap kids for their army. Took 8 months to get to 🇮🇹 by foot/boat. Incl 4 hours in car boot thru LibyaWhen he arrived, he’d never played football. Now his full Serie A debut v champions! #INTGEN pic.twitter.com/EcCKTwemwx— Carlo Garganese (@carlogarganese) August 21, 2021 After getting off the boat in Sicily, he could not get in touch with his parents for six months. His family thought he was dead. In the meantime, his brother was kidnapped. Life itself was a prize enough for an innocent child who’s had to endure unspeakable hardship, danger and pain. But he survived, determined to make the most out of the prize he’d won.After graduating from eighth grade with full marks, Yayah nurtured his passion for football by playing on the provincial pitches. And there, he was spotted. After a couple of failed trials with third-tier teams, Genoa youth manager Michele Sbravati saw something in Yayah and decided to let him train at their academy, despite not being legally allowed to sign the underage African refugee without a special permit.Monday, 19.30: (1.93) Verona (3.50) Genoa (4.50)After a year of gaining experience in Savona in the Serie D, Kallon was finally given his first contract, along with a chance to prove himself and break into Genoa’s first team. So he did. On 22 May 2021, he made his senior debut for Genoa in a 1–0 Serie A win over Cagliari. It was already an achievement beyond his wildest dreams, but there were more goals to attain. On 13 August 2021, Kallon scored his first goal for Genoa, in a 3–2 Coppa Italia win over Perugia.There are still days when Yayah thinks about all the troubles that he’d had to overcome – mostly when Italian journalists try to find out more about his life.”The journey was long and difficult. In Lybia, I met guys from many countries, from the Ivory Coast to Senegal to Mali and even if we didn’t speak the same language, we made a group. There were no rules there, and you met kids walking around armed. To pay for the crossing by sea I worked, from cleaning the houses to laying bricks. When I managed to collect the thousand dinars they asked, they just robbed me, so I had to start over.”It’s difficult to comprehend how a 14-year-old boy can go through such an ordeal and live to talk about it from a position of a professional footballer in one of the best leagues in the world.💫 “Il mio gol? Lo dedico a Gino #Strada. Un grande uomo, il mondo intero deve dirgli grazie. Per il mio paese ha fatto moltissimo, ha costruito ospedali e curato persone. Ha fatto tantissimo per tutta l’Africa, sono triste per tutto questo”.🔴🔵 Yayah #Kallon pic.twitter.com/tN424PATIh— Genoa CFC (@GenoaCFC) August 15, 2021 As if he was chosen to be tempted throughout his life and career, Kallon had to overcome a nasty fibula fracture in late 2019, but even that couldn’t keep him down. This season he’s got 15 appearances, of which five were starts. He’s not a first-choice forward and is a backup for Ghanaian striker Caleb Ekuban, Mattia Destro and Aleksander Buksa.At just 20 years of age, Kallon has the best part of his career ahead of him. One thing is sure – he’ll never give up.
