He is a former Ballon d’Or contender who retired at 28 after falling out of love with soccer to become vacuum salesman

He once finished fourth in Ballon d’Or voting, was top scorer at a European Championship, and lifted multiple international trophies in European soccer.

For most of the past two decades, the Ballon d’Or has been dominated by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. But in the 1990s, the award was far less predictable, with plenty of surprise contenders and unexpected winners.

In 1994, Barcelona’s Hristo Stoichkov took home the prestigious trophy, edging out Roberto Baggio and Paolo Maldini. Right behind them, tied for fourth place, was Romania’s Gheorghe Hagi and Sweden’s Tomas Brolin — then just 24 years old and brimming with potential. Few could have predicted that only four years later, Brolin would retire from professional soccer to sell vacuum cleaners.

Brolin enjoyed a successful run with Parma, winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup (1992–93), the UEFA Super Cup (1993), the UEFA Cup (1994–95), and the Coppa Italia before making a move to Leeds United in 1995. But once in England, something changed.

The Swedish star no longer felt the same spark — not in matches, and not in training. Loan spells at FC Zurich and a return to Parma couldn’t reignite it. By 1998, while at Crystal Palace, the Euro 1992 Golden Boot winner decided to call it quits.

From the pitch to the showroom

At just 28, Brolin shifted his focus entirely away from soccer, diving into the business world. He founded a vacuum cleaner company — a move that many might have seen as a step down, but which turned out to be one of the smartest decisions of his life.

In a 2018 interview with FourFourTwo, Brolin revealed that his company now sells over 130,000 vacuum units annually. “Initially, it was fun to go and train every day. But toward the end, it wasn’t anymore. I wondered if I should keep going for another season, thought about it over the summer, and decided to stop,” Brolin said.

“It wasn’t the injuries; if you want to keep playing at a high level, you have to train every day, and I wasn’t up for that anymore. I had other projects in my head. When I quit playing, an inventor brought me this idea for vacuums, and I opened a company. Now we sell more than 130,000 units a year,” he continued.

Even after stepping away, Brolin admits the urge to return never came back. “If I had wanted to by December, I could have played again. But those feelings never returned, and it’s been 20 years now. Everyone told me 28 is too early to retire, but it depends on what you’ve done in your career as a footballer — and I’d say I did quite a lot,” Brolin added.

From: bolavip.com