Saido Berahino retires at 33 to take up Burundi coaching role
Former West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City striker Saido Berahino has retired from playing at 33 and will now coach the Burundi national team.
Saido Berahino, who broke through at West Bromwich Albion before a £12m move to Stoke City in January 2017, has retired from football at the age of 33 to focus on coaching Burundi. The Burundi international announced the decision in a statement posted on Instagram, titled 'A Letter To The Game'.
Berahino made his name at his boyhood club West Brom, enjoying an especially prolific 2014-15 campaign in which he scored 20 goals across the Premier League and cup competitions. He finished his Albion career with 36 goals in 121 appearances in all competitions, a spell that included a hat-trick on his first start against Newport County in the EFL Cup in August 2013, when he was 20.
His move to Stoke did not go to plan. Having already faltered at Albion in his latter days under Tony Pulis, Berahino struggled badly at Stoke, who suffered relegation from the Premier League in April 2018. Given a second chance by then manager Gary Rowett, he scored five times in 2018-19 before falling out of favour again and eventually being released by mutual consent with three years still remaining on his contract.
After leaving Stoke in August 2019 he played in Belgium for Waregem and Charleroi, then joined former West Brom boss Darren Moore at Sheffield Wednesday in August 2021. Further spells followed in Cyprus, India and Slovenia. Although capped by England at every youth level up to under-21 and twice called up to Roy Hodgson's senior squad without playing, Berahino went on to represent Burundi.
In his statement, Berahino thanked West Brom for believing in him as a boy, saying the club's goals, fans and moments would always be special. He acknowledged there had been highs and lows, mistakes and lessons, and said his body and heart were ready for the next chapter. He described serving the Burundi national team as a coach as giving back to the country that made him, and reflected on a journey from the streets of Bujumbura to The Hawthorns and the Premier League, saying football had given him everything.
Image: Malcolm Couzens - Getty Images / BBC Sport
