John Bankolé Kamara (born 12 May 1988) is a Sierra Leonean professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Philippines Football League The Philippines Football League, commonly known as PFL, is a Filipino professional football league sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF). It is the Philippines' highest level of men's club football, supplanting the United Footb ...

club

United City United City is a group of businesses based within Greater Manchester, England, who supported proposals for congestion charging in Greater Manchester via the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund bid for £3 billion. The bid was rejecte ...

Club career

Born in

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...

, Kamara has played in Lebanon and Greece for

Tadamon Sour Tadamon Sour Sporting Club ( ar, نادي التضامن الرياضي صور, lit=Solidarity Sporting Club Tyre), or simply Tadamon, is a football club based in Tyre, Lebanon, that competes in the . They play their home matches at the Tyre ...

Apollon Smyrni Apollon Smyrnis Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Απόλλων Σμύρνης), or in its full name Gymnasticos Syllogos Apollon Smyrnis ( el, links=no, Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Απόλλων Σμύρνης, ''Gymnastics Club Apollon o ...

and

Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

. In October 2014 he was told not to train with Lamia, on advice from the Greek health ministry, following fears over the ongoing Ebola virus epidemic. He wore off a T-shirt saying "we are west Africans not a virus", and as a result faced sanctions. In August 2015 he signed a two-year contract with

Aris Thessaloniki Athlitikos Syllogos Aris Thessalonikis, means Athletic Club Aris Thessaloniki
...

. He signed for Latvian club

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

for the 2016 season. Kamara joined Kazakh club Kaisar on 1 January 2017. On 8 January 2019, Kamara joined

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League ( az, Azərbaycan Premyer Liqası) is a professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Azerbaijan football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is conteste ...

club

Keşla FK Shamakhi FK ( az, Şamaxı Futbol Klubu, ) is an Azerbaijani professional association football, football club based in Shamakhi, that currently competes in the Azerbaijan Premier League. The club has won the Premier League title twice. History ...

. On 25 June 2020, Kamara signed a new contract with Keşla for the 2020–21 season. On 27 December 2021, Kamara left Keşla by mutual consent. In January 2023, he signed for Greek team

Egaleo Aigaleo or Egaleo ( el, Αιγάλεω ) is a suburban municipality in the western part of Athens, belonging to the West Athens regional administrative unit. It takes its name from Mount Aigaleo. Its population was 69,946 at the 2011 census. Ge ...

. In March 2024, Kamara joined

club

International career

He made his senior international debut for

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

in 2013, and has appeared in FIFA World Cup qualifying matches. He was a squad member at the 2021 AFCON.

Career statistics

International

International goals

References