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When it comes to whirlwind football careers, few shone so brightly and for such a short space of time as Tomas Brolin. The Swedish international was a Ballon d’Or contender and the most expensive foreigner to move to the Premier League but retired from the game altogether at the age of 28. The forward was able to cram a great deal into his short career, reaching the semi-finals of the European Championships and the World Cup and even landing the golden boot at Euro 92. Since retiring, though, he has shown there is much more to life than football.
Brolin began his career in Sweden, making his top-flight debut in 1987 and earning a move to Parma in Italy after a breakout season with Norrkopings three years later. He joined the newly promoted Serie A team off the back of his first World Cup goal, in a defeat against Brazil, and helped them qualify for Europe. During the same period, he scored three times for Sweden at both Euro 92 and World Cup 94, also forming part of a talented Parma front-line - along with Faustino Asprilla and Gianfranco Zola - as the Gialloblu lost to Arsenal in the 1994 Cup Winners’ Cup final.
Just a few months later, though, injury derailed Brolin’s Parma career. He missed most of the 1994/95 season after suffering a broken foot and opted to leave in 1995 after Hristo Stoichkov moved to Stadio Ennio Tardini.
Leeds United came calling, paying what was at the time a club record £4.5million. The sum was more than any English club had previously paid for a foreign player, though his former team-mate Asprilla would set a new record a few months after that when he joined Newcastle United.
Things didn't go as planned, though. He played just 25 times for the Yorkshire side, scoring four goals, and returned to Parma on loan before another unsuccessful Premier League spell at Crystal Palace.
After a muted end to his career, Brolin hung up his boots in 1998 and turned to a new line of work. He linked up with Swedish inventor Goran Edlund and the pair worked on the creation of a lighter and more efficient vacuum cleaner nozzle - just one of a number of ventures which has given the former World Cup star purpose in the post-football phase of his life.
"I was really tired of training every day and had other projects on my mind," Brolin told Italian outlet La Gazetta dello Sport in 2025. "I've always been very curious. I needed something more. My mind was looking for new experiences, and being an entrepreneur helped me.
"I had a new idea for a new type of vacuum cleaner. I was literally drawn in and founded a company. It was that drive that made me never want to go back.
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"Back then, everyone told me that 28 was too early to retire, but I replied, 'It depends on what you've done in those 28 years.' I had already achieved a lot. I came fourth in the Ballon d'Or. Life is too short to do boring things. I don't do things I don't enjoy."
That isn’t the only post-football venture Brolin, now 56, has embarked on. He turned his hand to poker, winning more than £30,000 at a prestigious tournament in Monaco, and even appeared on Sweden’s version of The Masked Singer.
The 1994 Ballon d'Or standings speak to the quality on show across Europe at that time. Stoichkov was the winner of the gong, which will be awarded once again on Monday, after helping Barcelona win the league and leading Bulgaria to a shock World Cup semi-final place, with Italian pair Roberto Baggio and Paolo Maldini rounding out the top three.
Brolin finished tied for fourth with Romania star Gheorghe Hagi, with Jurgen Klinsmann and Eric Cantona the only Premier League representatives in the rankings. Despite never returning to those heights, though, the Swede left the game with no regrets.
"I discovered a new world, learned a trade, and challenged myself again," he said of his career change. "Now, when I think about it, I come to the conclusion that I've always wanted to improve myself in every aspect.
“I did it with football, I did it with business. It (football) was fun when I was a child and a job when I got a little older... Life is too short not to have fun."
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