"I wasn't aware of it, so my surroundings felt normal to me, the 32-year-old tells FourFourTwo when asked about his early years. As a kid, I remember collecting plastic bags to make a football because we couldn't afford one. My dad passed away when I was four and it was only later I learned it was due to the war."
"When I arrived, nobody could get hold of my mum. I had to go to a police station, where they found out her contact details had changed. They eventually got in touch with her, but I was put in a care home while they checked that she really was my mum, doing DNA and blood tests. Thankfully I went to a multicultural school with a lot of black kids. Football was key in making friends, but it took me about eight months to speak English properly."
"The game of football has a unifying power to bring together players from all backgrounds and the ability to change countless lives for the better. The sport's history is littered with the most unlikely origin stories, tales where a youngster can emerge from the favelas to become world beaters. Saido Berahino burst onto the Premier League scene with West Bromwich Albion in the 2013/14 season, with his winning goal at Old Trafford a highlight, and a goal which capped a remarkable story for the Burundi-born striker."
Saido Berahino was born in Bujumbura in August 1993, two months before Burundi's civil war began. His father died when he was four, later learned to be a war casualty. As the conflict continued, he traveled alone to the UK to join his mother and siblings in Birmingham and faced initial identity checks and a stay in a care home while DNA and blood tests confirmed his family ties. He attended a multicultural school, used football to make friends, took around eight months to learn English, progressed from school football to Sunday league and then West Brom, and scored a notable winning goal at Old Trafford in 2013/14.
Read at www.fourfourtwo.com
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