He was once the most expensive foreign signing in Premier League history but retired in his 20s before a surprise career change

When Leeds United signed Tomas Brolin from Parma in 1995, they were landing a player who had finished fourth in the Ballon d'Or voting just months earlier. Things didn't go to plan for the Swede in the Premier League, though, and his career took a very different turn after he hung up his boots in 1998.

Brolin was part of the team that reached the semi-finals of Euro 92, with no other player getting more than his three goals. He scored three more when his country repeated the feat at the 1994 World Cup, but things quickly went south.

The forward received Ballon d'Or recognition months after helping Sweden beat Bulgaria in the World Cup third-place play-off. However, he was arguably never the same after an injury curtailed his 1994/95 season.

He managed just 25 games for Leeds, scoring four times, but was done with football at the age of just 28. Despite moving to Elland Road for a club record £4.5m - at the time the highest sum any Premier League club had paid for a foreign player - he moved as far away from football as you can imagine.

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Shortly after calling it quits, he joined forces with Swedish inventor Goran Edlund. The pair worked together on the development a lighter, more efficient vacuum cleaner nozzle - not exactly the natural path most professional athletes take post-retirement.

"I was really tired of training every day and had other projects on my mind," Brolin told 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.

"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."

At his peak, Brolin held his own among some of the game's best. Barcelona star Hristo Stoichkov was the man who beat him to the 1994 Ballon d'Or, which will be awarded for 2026 on Monday, while Jurgen Klinsmann and Eric Cantona finished lower down the rankings.

He has since reflected on his Leeds failings and the outside issues which impacted his struggles. "My position was one of the main points, and poor management," he told FourFourTwo in 2018.

"I liked Yorkshire and the fans were amazing. I still follow Leeds as a supporter... I remember being on the bench for the 1996 League Cup final against Aston Villa - it was so frustrating, but the fans kept singing my name because they wanted me on - I'll never forget that."

"They knew something wasn't right, and that it wasn't only my fault. Fans are clever like that - they all understood that something strange was going on with the Leeds management."

Invention wasn't the only avenue Brolin, now aged 56, pursued after hanging up his boots. He tried his luck at poker, pocketing over £30,000 at a high-profile tournament in Monaco, and even made an appearance on Sweden's edition of The Masked Singer.

"I discovered a new world, learned a trade, and challenged myself again," he said of his change of career. "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."