A career defined by dramatic highs and humbling lows has come to a close, as former Premier League forward Saido Berahino has announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 31, shifting his full focus to a new role as a coach with Burundi’s senior national men’s team.
Raised in the English Midlands after arriving as a young refugee from Burundi, Berahino launched his professional journey through the youth academy of West Bromwich Albion, the boyhood club that would shape the early stages of his career. The forward exploded onto the top-flight scene during the 2014-15 season, netting 20 goals across Premier League and domestic cup competitions to cement his reputation as one of England’s most promising young attacking talents. That breakout campaign earned him a high-profile £12 million transfer to Stoke City in January 2017, a move that would mark the start of a sharp downturn in his playing career.
The striker had already struggled for consistent form during his final months at West Brom under manager Tony Pulis, but his performance at Stoke fell even shorter of expectations. Just 15 months after his arrival, Stoke suffered relegation from the Premier League in April 2018. A brief resurgence under then-manager Gary Rowett, where he scored five goals during the 2018-19 campaign, was not enough to keep him in the first-team picture, and he reached a mutual agreement to terminate his contract three years early, leaving the club in August 2019.
Following his exit from Stoke, Berahino bounced around a series of clubs across Europe and beyond: he spent two seasons in Belgium with Zulte Waregem and Charleroi before joining former West Brom manager Darren Moore at Sheffield Wednesday in August 2021. Later stints included spells at clubs in Cyprus, India, and Slovenia, as he wound down his playing career while also representing Burundi at the international level. Notably, Berahino represented England at every youth level up to under-21, and earned two call-ups to the full England senior squad under former manager Roy Hodgson, but never earned a senior cap for his adopted country. Across his entire professional club career in Europe, he scored 72 goals, and added two more in 23 appearances for Burundi.
Berahino paid special tribute to his boyhood club West Brom, where he scored 36 goals in 121 appearances across all competitions – including a hat-trick on his first senior start for the club, a 2013 EFL Cup fixture against Newport County when he was just 20 years old.
In a public statement titled “A Letter To The Game” posted to his Instagram account, Berahino reflected on his unlikely journey from a young refugee to the top of English football. “I want to thank West Bromwich Albion for believing in me when I was a boy. Those years at the club, the goals, the fans, the moments, they will always be special. There were highs and lows, mistakes and lessons. I learned that the game can lift you up and test you at the same time,” he wrote.
Announcing his transition, he added: “The time has come to hang up the boots. My body and my heart are ready for the next chapter. I am proud and grateful to now serve the Burundi national team as a coach. Giving back to the country that made me, and helping the next generation, feels right.
“To my family – you have been my strength. To the fans who stayed with me through every chapter – I will never forget your support. This is not goodbye to football. It is simply the end of one story and the beginning of another. Football has given me everything. From the streets of Bujumbura to The Hawthorns, from the Premier League to places I never imagined I’d play – this game carried a young refugee kid through life.”