Oleg Anatolyevich Salenko (, ; born 25 October 1969) is a Russian-Ukrainian former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

er who played as a forward. He scored a record five goals in a group-stage match in the 1994 World Cup, helping him earn the Golden Boot as joint-top tournament goalscorer.

Club career

Salenko was born to a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He played for Zenit Leningrad,

Dynamo Kyiv The Football Club 'Dynamo Kyiv', also known as Dynamo Kyiv, or simply Dynamo, ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society ...

, Logroñés, Córdoba,

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, Rangers and

İstanbulspor İstanbulspor Kulübü is a Turkish association football, football and sports club founded by Istanbul High School students in 1926. In 2004–05, they were relegated from the Turkish Süper Lig (Super League) to the TFF First League. For many d ...

during his club career, that lasted from 1986 to 2000. Eventually, he faded from the international football scene and finally had to end his career prematurely, at the age of 31, for injury reasons. Salenko returned to playing professional football in the 2000–01 season and signed for Pogoń Szczecin. He retired after playing a single game due to his physical conditioning.

International career

Salenko played for the Soviet Union under-20 team at the

1989 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1989 FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Saudi Arabia between 16 February and 3 March 1989. The 1989 championship was the 7th contested. The tournament took place across four cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Ta' ...

, becoming the tournament top scorer with 5 goals. He played a total of only nine international matches, including the Ukraine 1–3 Hungary friendly, which was the first international game for the

Ukraine national football team The Ukraine national football team ( ) represents Ukraine in men's international Association football, football, and is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. Ukraine's home ground is the ...

to be recognised by FIFA. He also had eight appearances for

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and scored six goals, all of them at the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

in which he was joint top scorer. His last international appearance was 6–1 win against

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when he scored five times. As of 2024, he is the only player to win the Golden Boot at both the U-20 World Cup and

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

1994 FIFA World Cup

Salenko set a World Cup record by scoring five goals in one game in

's 6–1 win against

on 28 June 1994. He finished the 1994 World Cup with six goals, having scored from the penalty spot against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in the previous match and shared the Golden Boot with

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Hristo Stoichkov Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov (; born 8 February 1966) is a Bulgarian former professional Association football, footballer and current football commentator for TUDN. A prolific Forward (association football), forward, he is widely regarded as the g ...

after being knocked out in the first round and having played only three matches while

played a total of seven matches and achieved a fourth-place finish. As of 2022, Salenko is the only player ever to win the Golden Boot award on a team eliminated from the World Cup finals at the group stage.

Beach football

In 2003, Salenko was appointed as manager of the Ukraine national beach soccer team. His team played three games, the only win being over USA 6–5, and losing the other two to Brazil and Spain. The tournament took place at the end of July in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

under the name ''Mundialito''.List of matches of the national team in Ukrainian
After the tournament, he was dismissed. He was later taking part of FFU assisting staff, but later stopped being involved in football to focus on his business.

Career statistics

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year International goals :''Scores and results list Russia's goal tally first.''

Honours

;Dynamo Kyiv *

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (), served as the top division (tier) of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The league's name was a conditional designation used for brevity since being completely owned and g ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

Soviet Cup The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (),, , , (Moldovan Cyrillic: Купа УРСС), , , . was the premier football cup competition in the Soviet Union conducted by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union. The 1991–92 season of the tournam ...

;Rangers *

Scottish Football League Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League Scottish Football League First D ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

Individual * FIFA World Youth Championship Golden Shoe:

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

* FIFA World Cup Golden Boot:

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

References

External links

*
RSSSF

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Salenko, Oleg 1969 births Living people Russian emigrants to Ukraine Footballers from Saint Petersburg Men's association football forwards Soviet men's footballers Russian men's footballers Ukrainian men's footballers Soviet Top League players Scottish Football League players Rangers F.C. players Ukrainian Premier League players FC Dynamo Kyiv players FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players Ekstraklasa players Pogoń Szczecin players La Liga players Segunda División players Valencia CF players CD Logroñés footballers Córdoba CF players İstanbulspor footballers Süper Lig players 1994 FIFA World Cup players Soviet Union men's under-21 international footballers Ukraine men's international footballers Russia men's international footballers Russian expatriate men's footballers Russian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Russian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Russian people of Ukrainian descent Ukrainian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Dual internationalists (men's football) Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Russian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Russian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Russian expatriate football managers 20th-century Russian sportsmen 20th-century Ukrainian sportsmen