West Brom sold star for £12m - He's now playing in the Slovenian second tier | OneFootball

Saido Berahino’s decline in his career has been staggering since his £12 million exit from The Hawthorns.

West Brom possessed a top talent on their books when Saido Berahino emerged through the Albion academy.

The now 31-year-old was such a key figure in the first-team setup at The Hawthorns, contributing heavily to their eight-year consecutive stay in the Premier League between 2010 and 2018.

Bursting onto the scene in the Black Country back in 2013, Berahino was backed to achieve great things in his career due to his goalscoring ability, but it hasn’t worked out that way and the decline of his career is a shock for anybody to see, given his original talent.

The rise and fall of Saido Berahino

Saido Berahino first announced himself on the Premier League stage at Old Trafford against Manchester United back in 2013, scoring the winner for Albion in a famous 2-1 victory after replacing Scott Sinclair off the bench.

Rotated in and out of the Baggies starting XI for the remainder of that season, the youngster would net five times from 32 Premier League appearances, with the Baggies seemingly having a star-studded striker on their books.

Continuing his development, Berahino would go on to play such a key role the following season, featuring in every game as well as making 32 starts.

From the 38 games, the forward would be Albion’s top goalscorer with 14 strikes and secured the club's Player of the Year award.

But during the 2015/16 season, the striker was unable to build on the strong reputation he had built for himself, scoring just four goals in 31 Premier League outings.

He then managed just four appearances during the first half of the 2016/17 top-flight campaign, and as his relationship strained with the Albion hierarchy, it prompted the club to move him on to Stoke City, in a deal worth £12 million.

His move to the Potteries would begin a rampant decline down the football pyramids, with the former England youth international failing to score a single goal at the Bet365 Stadium during the latter half of the 2016/17 season, as well as the entirety of the 2017/18 season.

This led to Stoke’s relegation to the Championship, and Berahino was subsequently shipped out to the Belgian top division with Zulte Waregem in 2019.

Berahino would make a return to England in the Football League with Sheffield Wednesday two years later, returning eight goals and four assists from 31 League One appearances before making a switch to Cyprus with AEL Limassol.

A short stint at Rajasthan United in India would follow, but the Burundi international ended up not featuring once for the club and has recently made his next jump to the Slovenian second tier at Tabor Sežana, making a seven-minute debut appearance at the beginning of March.

It’s been quite the change for Saido Berahino

Not many people could have expected the drop-off Saido Berahino has had after becoming such a standout talent with West Brom.

Despite his attitude problems at the likes of Albion and Stoke, it was expected the frontman would have grown out of them with age and gone on to make a rise back up to the top levels of football, but he has been unable to do it.

Berahino simply couldn’t cope in the Premier League spotlight with so much pressure on his young shoulders, and constant setbacks in his career have been very damaging, hence his struggles in the lower leagues of Europe during the last few years.

It’s a sad sight for Berahino, who could have turned out to be one of the finest forwards in the country if he could have kept his emotions in check.