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Salenko was born to a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Russian SFSR, which was then part of the Soviet Union. He played for Zenit Leningrad, Dynamo Kyiv, Logroñés, Córdoba, Valencia, Rangers and İstanbulspor 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.^{[citation needed]}

Salenko played for the Soviet Union under-20 team at the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship, 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 to be recognised by FIFA. He also had eight appearances for Russia and scored six goals, all of them at the World Cup in which he was joint top scorer. His last international appearance was 6–1 win against Cameroon 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.

Salenko set a World Cup record by scoring five goals in one game in Russia's 6–1 win against Cameroon on 28 June 1994.^[3] He finished the 1994 World Cup with six goals, having scored from the penalty spot against Sweden in the previous match and shared the Golden Boot with Bulgarian Hristo Stoichkov after being knocked out in the first round and having played only three matches while Bulgaria played a total of seven matches and achieved a fourth-place finish.^[4]Salenko is the only player ever to win the Golden Boot award while playing for a team eliminated from the World Cup finals at the group stage.^[4]

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 under the name Mundialito.^[5] 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.^{[citation needed]}

He is the father of Ukrainian footballer Roman Salenko,^[6] who made his debut with Dynamo Kyiv, the second team Oleg played for, in November 2024.^[7]

Appearances and goals by national team and year^[8]

International goals

Scores and results list Russia's goal tally first.^[8]

No	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	24 June 1994	Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac, United States	Sweden	1–0	1–3	1994 FIFA World Cup
2.	28 June 1994	Stanford Stadium, Stanford, United States	Cameroon	1–0	6–1	1994 FIFA World Cup
3.				2–0
4.				3–0
5.				4–1
6.				5–1

Dynamo Kyiv

• Soviet Top League: 1990
• Soviet Cup: 1990

Rangers

• Scottish Football League Premier Division: 1996

Individual

• FIFA World Youth Championship Golden Shoe: 1989
• FIFA World Cup Golden Boot: 1994
• Oleh Blokhin club

• List of FIFA World Cup top goalscorers