Quatrième du Ballon d’or puis vendeur d’aspirateurs à 28 ans: une légende raconte son improbable changement de carrière
In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Tomas Brolin recounts how he left professional football at the age of 28, three years after finishing fourth in the Ballon d'Or, to become a vacuum cleaner salesman.
Tomas Brolin loves doing what he loves. And that was no longer the case with football, an activity that had taken him to great heights in terms of notoriety. In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, the brilliant former Swedish midfielder reflected on the circumstances that led him to retire at just 28 years old, in 1998. A few years earlier, he had been one of the key players in the talented Swedish generation, which had finished third in the 1994 World Cup, as well as in Parma. But he gave it all up to become a vacuum cleaner salesman.
“An inventor proposed his idea for a vacuum cleaner to me, and I was literally captivated.”
“Football was fun when I was a kid, and a job when I grew up,” he says. “It was an unforgettable adventure because I won so many titles: with Parma, a Coppa Italia, a Cup Winners' Cup, a European Super Cup, and a UEFA Cup. With Sweden, I finished third at the 1994 World Cup. And that year, I finished fourth in the Ballon d'Or rankings, behind Stoichkov, Roberto Baggio, and Paolo Maldini. Not bad, eh?”
Despite this, he decided to turn his back on football at an age often considered the age when players reach their peak. "I was frankly tired of training every day, and other projects were running through my head. I've always been very curious." This aspect of his personality led him to succumb to an unexpected project. "A man approached me," he explains. "He was a strange character: an inventor. He proposed his idea for a vacuum cleaner. I was literally seduced and started a company with him. That's what made me never want to return to the field."
"At the time, everyone told me that 28 was too early to retire, but I replied: 'It depends on what you've done in those 28 years,'" retorts the former Parma and Leeds player. "I had achieved a lot in my career. And life is too short to do boring things. I don't do what I don't like."
Tomas Brolin, now 55, insists he "never" wanted to return to football. "I needed something else," he insists. "My mind was searching for new experiences, and being an entrepreneur helped me. I discovered a new world, I learned a trade, I got back into the game. Today, looking back, I tell myself that I've always wanted to surpass myself in every area. I did it with football, I did it with business..."
After this abrupt end, Tomas Brolin became a professional poker player before, once again, calling it quits. Since then, he has continued to assiduously follow the matches of Parma, his former club (1990-1995, then 1997) while indulging in his passions such as padel and golf.
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Ils ont marqué l'Euro 92 (sortis chez eux en demie par l'Allemagne 2-3) et surtout la CDM 94 aux USA où ils étaient les seuls à avoir tenu en échec le Brésil (1-1 en groupe), avant de se faire difficilement sortir en demie par ce même Brésil (0-1 but de Romario à la 80ème), mais en jouant cette fois-ci à 10 suite au rouge à la 64ème je pense de leur capitaine Jonas Thern. Ils remportèrent quand même brillamment la 3ème place (4-0) face à la Bulgarie bourreau de la France dans les qualifs pour cette CDM, mdrr. Enfin, la plupart de ces joeurs sortaient de l'IFK Goteborg, club qui aussi jouait un grand rôle en LDC en Europe ces années-là! Vraiment Bosman et l'arrêt qui porte son nom ont tué le foot des pays du nord et de l'est de l'Europe!
Occupons nous de nos déchets solides et humains.
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