Amjad Kalaf Mansour Al-Muntafiq (Arabic: أَمْجَد كَلَف مَنْصُور الْمُنْتَفِق; born 5 October 1991) is an Iraqi former professional footballer who played as a right winger and sometimes as a striker.
On the international level, Kalaf played 30 matches for Iraq, scoring against the United Arab Emirates in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.
The forward is the youngest of three footballing brothers, Mohammed and Alaa, the sons of former army track and field athlete Kalaf Mansour.
They won just 1 match, drawing 3 and losing 8, finishing bottom of their group and being relegated to the Iraqi First Division League.
Al-Shorta signed Kalaf from Al-Kut in 2007 on a two-year contract, ahead of the start of the 2007–08 Iraqi Premier League.
[13][14][15] He received the first red card of his Al-Shorta career when he was sent off in a 3–1 defeat to Al-Zawraa, a game where he played as a right-back and assisted a goal.
[16] In total, Kalaf scored four goals in his debut season, and he extended his contract at the club after the end of the league campaign.
Before Erbil entered their pre-season training camp, Kalaf called Al-Shorta manager Younis Abed Ali and asked him to return to the club.
He then had a long conversation with Abdul Khaliq Masood, the vice president of Erbil, asking for his contract to be terminated.
Kalaf was substituted on in the second half against Samarra on 1 July and scored within a few minutes to put Al-Shorta 1–0 up in a match they eventually won 3–1.
[29] Kalaf was Al-Shorta's top scorer for the second season in a row, again with 11 goals, with his team finishing seventh in the league table.
[31] Kalaf was linked with a move to close rivals Al-Zawraa in the summer transfer window of 2012 but he ended up staying at Al-Shorta due to his love for the club and its fans.
On 16 June 2013, Kalaf featured in the 2013 Baghdad Cup final against Al-Zawraa and started the move which led to the cup-winning goal scored by Hussein Karim.
After a 2–0 loss to Karbalaa, Mohamed Youssef decided to terminate Kalaf's contract at the club in a controversial and highly-publicised decision.
In the following season, Kalaf scored a late equalising goal against his former club Al-Shorta in the Baghdad derby and helped Al-Zawraa to win the 2017–18 Iraqi Premier League title.
Kalaf's first international participation was for the Iraq U-17 team in 2005, when he was called up by coach Kadhim Khalaf for the qualifiers for the 2006 AFC U-17 Championship.
Kalaf made his debut for the senior Iraq national team at the age of just 18 years old when Radhi Shenaishil called him up for a friendly with Saudi Arabia on 22 March 2009.
On 16 January 2012, Kalaf played for the Iraq U-23 team in a match against FC Anzhi Makhachkala, with the likes of Samuel Eto'o and Roberto Carlos featuring for the Russian side.
[47] Kalaf participated in the 2013 Islamic Solidarity Games for the Olympic team, scoring the first goal in Iraq's opening match, a 3–2 defeat to Turkey.
In the opening match against Saudi Arabia, Kalaf assisted two goals, both scored by Marwan Hussein, as Iraq won 3–1.
He assisted a goal for Younis Mahmoud in the opening match, a 4–0 win against Nepal, before Iraq beat Japan 3–1 and Kuwait 3–0 to reach the knockout stage.
In the round of 16, Iraq beat Tajikistan 4–2, with Kalaf assisting the opening goal with a cross converted by Humam Tariq.
Iraq defeated Saudi Arabia 3–0 in the quarter-finals, but lost 1–0 to North Korea in the semi-finals after extra time.
[51] After this disappointing tournament, Radhi Shenaishil was reappointed as Iraq manager and he called up Kalaf for his 2015 AFC Asian Cup squad.
[52] Kalaf returned to the national team in 2017 when he was called up by Radhi Shenaishil for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Described as "a gazelle on the wings", Kalaf (being the son of a former sprinter) has often made bursting, defence splitting runs down the right flank.