Salah El Din Ahmed Said (; born 29 October 1988), also known as Salhadin Said or Saladin Said, is an Ethiopian former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a forward. His energy, skill, and goal scoring ability in critical games have made him one of the indispensable players in eastern Africa. Salhadin finished as the top scorer in the 2017 CAF Champions League.

Club career

Early career

In 2010, Salhadin was on trial with Serbian club Partizan, but the transfer failed. Subsequently, he trialled with

FK Vojvodina Fudbalski klub Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Војводина), commonly known as Vojvodina and colloquially as Voša ( sr-Cyrl, Воша), is a Serbian professional football club based in Novi Sad, Serbia, the second large ...

, but did not manage to go further than gaining good wishes and compliments from coach Zoran Milinković. In 2011, Salhadin scored five goals in a 2011 Kagame Inter-Club Cup game against AS Port from

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

Wadi Degla

On 9 October 2011, Salhadin got transferred to Egyptian club Wadi Degla FC, who paid 2,040,000 Ethiopian birr, ($240,000 US), at the time the highest sum ever paid for an Ethiopian footballer.

Lierse

Salhadin said ahead of Ethiopia's game against

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

2013 Africa Cup of Nations The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange S.A., Orange Africa Cup of Nations South Africa 2013 for sponsorship reasons, held from 19 January to 10 February 2013, was the 29th Africa Cup of Nations, the Association football, footbal ...

that he was moving to Belgium club Lierse after the Africa Cup.

Al Ahly

On 23 April 2014, Saladin moved from Wadi Degla to the league rivals Al-Ahly where they had captured 2013 CAF Champions League title.

Saint George

After an unsuccessful stint at Algerian side

MC Alger Mouloudia Club d'Alger (), referred to as MC Alger or MCA for short, is an Algerian football club based in Algiers. The club was founded in 1921 and its colours are red, green and white. Their home stadium, Ali La Pointe Stadium, has a capacit ...

, Said returned to

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

in 2016.

International career

Said debuted for the Ethiopia national team in 2005. Since then he has been Ethiopia's top scorer in

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA#Structure, FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil national football team, Bra ...

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Ethiopia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Said goal.''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Said, Saladin Living people 1988 births Sportspeople from Benishangul-Gumuz Region Ethiopian men's footballers 21st-century Ethiopian sportsmen Men's association football forwards Ethiopia men's international footballers 2013 Africa Cup of Nations players Ethiopian Premier League players Egyptian Premier League players Belgian Pro League players Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 players Wadi Degla SC players Al Ahly SC players Lierse S.K. players MC Alger players Ethiopian expatriate men's footballers Ethiopian expatriate sportspeople in Egypt Expatriate men's footballers in Egypt Ethiopian expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Ethiopian expatriate sportspeople in Algeria Expatriate men's footballers in Algeria