Saido Berahino has hung up his boots at 33. The former West Brom and Stoke striker says he wants to concentrate on coaching Burundi, the country he represented as a player, and he announced the decision in a long, emotional post he titled "A Letter To The Game".
The boy from The Hawthorns
Berahino made his name at his boyhood club. He scored 36 goals in 121 appearances for West Bromwich Albion in all competitions, starting with a hat-trick on his first start as a 20-year-old against Newport County in the EFL Cup in August 2013. His best year came in 2014-15, when he scored 20 goals in the Premier League and the cups. He had also been capped by England at every youth level up to under-21, and Roy Hodgson twice called him into the senior squad, although he never got on the pitch.
The decline at Albion started in his later days under Tony Pulis, and it was a mixed picture from there. West Brom sold him to Stoke City for £12m in January 2017.
The Stoke years and the long road after
That move did not work. Berahino flopped badly at Stoke, who were relegated from the Premier League in April 2018. Gary Rowett gave him a second chance and he scored five times in 2018-19, but he soon fell out of favour again and left by mutual consent in August 2019 with three years still left on his contract.
What followed was a well-travelled second act. He played for Waregem and Charleroi in Belgium, then signed for Sheffield Wednesday in August 2021, reunited with Darren Moore, the former West Brom boss. Spells in Cyprus, India and Slovenia followed, as well as international football for Burundi. He scored twice in 23 appearances for his country and netted 72 goals in European club football.
What he said
His retirement message thanked West Brom first. "I want to thank West Bromwich Albion for believing in me when I was a boy," he wrote. "Those years at the club, the goals, the fans, the moments, they will always be special. There were highs and lows, mistakes and lessons."
He also thanked his family, whom he called his strength, and said this was not goodbye to football but "the end of one story and the beginning of another". He wrote about going from the streets of Bujumbura to The Hawthorns, calling it a journey that carried a young refugee kid through life, and said that helping the next generation in Burundi felt right. It is a gracious way to finish for a player whose career had more turns than most.
Career facts: Saido Berahino, 33, retired. West Brom (36 goals in 121 games), Stoke City (£12m, January 2017), Waregem, Charleroi, Sheffield Wednesday (from August 2021), then Cyprus, India and Slovenia. Burundi international (two goals in 23 appearances), now a coach with the national team.
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