Oleg Salenko

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Oleg Anatolyevich Salenko (Russian Cyrillic: Олег Анатольевич Саленко) (born October 25, 1969 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a former Russian and Ukrainian football striker. He is usually remembered as the only player to score five goals in a World Cup match in 1994, in a first-round match that had little meaning (since Russia did not advance).

[edit] Football career

Salenko set a World Cup record by scoring five goals in one game, for Russia against Cameroon on June 28, 1994. Salenko finished the 1994 World Cup with six goals (scoring his sixth goal from the penalty spot against Sweden), sharing the Golden Boot with Hristo Stoichkov, a remarkable feat since Russia was knocked out in the first round, and Stoichkov's Bulgaria played another four games in the tournament. This mirrored Salenko's achievement in the 1989 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Saudi Arabia, where he was top scorer when he scored 5 goals in the tournament.

Salenko played a total of only nine international matches, one of them for Ukraine, and he never scored in an international game before or after the 1994 World Cup. Despite this the skillful striker did enjoy a good career at club level, playing at Zenit Leningrad, Dynamo Kiev, Logroñés, Cordoba CF, Valencia, Rangers and Istanbulspor in a club career that lasted from 1986 to 2000.

Eventually, he faded from the international scene and finally had to end his career early for health reasons after having injury problems since the 1996-97 season. Salenko came back to football in the 2000-01 season and signed for Polish team Pogoń Szczecin. After playing only one league match and huge problems with weight and physical condition, he left the club and retired.

In 2003 he worked as the coach of the Ukraine national football team in beach football. His team played three games with only win over the team of USA 6:5 and lost the other two to Brazil and Spain. The tournament has taken place at the end of July in Portugal under the name Mundiolito. ^[1] After the tournament he was dismissed.

[edit] Career stats

[edit] References

1. ^ List of matches of the national team in Ukrainian

[edit] External links

• national-football-teams.com
• RSSSF

v • d • e Russia squad – 1994 FIFA World Cup 1 Cherchesov • 2 Kuznetsov • 3 Gorlukovich • 4 Galiamin • 5 Nikiforov • 6 Ternavski • 7 Piatnitski • 8 Popov • 9 Salenko • 10 Karpin • 11 Beschastnykh • 12 Tetradze • 13 Borodyuk • 14 Korneev • 15 Radchenko • 16 Kharine • 17 Tsymbalar • 18 Onopko • 19 Mostovoi • 20 Lediakhov • 21 Khlestov • 22 Yuran • Coach: Sadyrin