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Tomas Brolin
Personal information
Full name	Per Tomas Brolin
Date of birth	November 29, 1969 (1969-11-29) (age 38)
Place of birth	Hudiksvall, Sweden
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Striker, Attacking Midfielder
Club information
Current club	retired
Youth clubs
1976-1983	Näsvikens IK
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1984-1986 1987-1989 1990 1990-1995 1995-1996 1996 1997 1997 1998 1999	Näsvikens IK GIF Sundsvall IFK Norrköping A.C. Parma Leeds United FC Zürich (loan) A.C. Parma (loan) Leeds United Crystal Palace Hudiksvalls A.B.K.	036 0(10) 050 0(13) 009 00(7) 133 0(20) 019 00(4) 003 00(0) 011 00(0) 000 00(0) 013 00(0) 001 00(0)
National team2
1990-1995	Sweden	047 0(26)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of May 7, 2007. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of May 7, 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Tomas Brolin (born November 29, 1969 in Hudiksvall) is a former Swedish football player, and was a key member of the Swedish national team that finished third in the 1994 World Cup. He was also a member of the Swedish squad that competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Career Peak 3 Career Decline 4 Post football career 5 Miscellanea 6 Honours 6.1 Club 6.2 Country 6.3 Individual

He played his first match when he was 6 years old in Forssåtunet, and often played in teams with older players. In one match he scored 15 goals and was noticed by "Buster", a popular football comics magazine.

His first professional match was for Näsvikens IK in 1984. In 1986 he entered Fotbollsgymnasiet, the soccer academy in Sundsvall, and was subsequently signed by GIF Sundsvall. In 1987 he made his debut against IF Elfsborg.

In 1990 he moved to IFK Norrköping and scored a hat trick in his first match against IFK Göteborg. Before the World Cup in Italy, Sweden's coach Olle Nordin picked Brolin for a match against Wales; Brolin scored twice, and from then on was a regular in the national team, appearing in the 1990 World Cup Finals. After strong performances in the finals, he signed for Italian club Parma F.C., and also won his first Guldbollen as Sweden's footballer of the year.

Brolin was a key player for A.C. Parma, who won the Coppa Italia in 1991. In Euro 92, he was joint top-scorer with three others (Jan Eriksson and Kennet Andersson); his goal against England did much to raise his profile Tomas Brolin scores against England.

In 1993 Brolin was a member of Parma team that won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and the European Super Cup and also played in the team that won the 1995 UEFA Cup, defeating Juventus 2-1.

He scored 3 goals for Sweden in the 1994 World Cup, and Sweden surprised many by finishing third in the competition. Brolin's performances earned him a place in the competition's "World Cup All Star Team". In the quarter final against Romania, he scored one of his most famous goals; when Sweden were awarded a freekick, everyone expected Stefan Schwarz to shoot. Instead, he jumped over the ball and Håkan Mild passed the ball past the wall to Brolin who managed to score. "The Parma Variant". Brolin received his second Guldbollen award in 1994.

In the autumn of 1994, Brolin suffered an ankle injury during a European Championship qualifying game in Stockholm. Although he recovered from the injury, he never seemed to regain his pre-injury level of fitness, and in November 1995 he moved to Leeds United for £4.5m. The move was not a success. Brolin arrived with an obvious weight problem, earning him the nickname "Tubby" Tomas and made only 19 Premiership appearances for Leeds, scoring 4 goals over the next two seasons. Brolin was loaned to FC Zurich in August 1996, then in January 1997 returned briefly on loan to Parma. In October 1997 after reportedly turning down an offer to join Brazilian side Portuguesa, his contract with Leeds was terminated by mutual agreement. Brolin returned to England in January 1998 for a half-year stay with Crystal Palace. Brolin was interpreter and assistant to Italian international Attilio Lombardo for a short spell. Crystal Palace were relegated from the Premiership in April 1998 and at the end of the season Brolin retired from football.

After retiring from football, Tomas Brolin settled to become a businessman and returned to his homeland where he owns an Italian-Swedish restaurant called "Undici" (Italian for "11", the number he wore in Parma). He also invested money in real estate and - to some public amusement - in a firm selling a new type of mouthpiece for vacuum cleaners. Tomas has also played in Swedish non-league football, intriguingly as a goalkeeper for Hudiksvalls A.B.K. where his brother Håkan Brolin played. He has also released a song in Sweden; the accompanying video features Brolin lying in a hottub surrounded by stereotypically blonde Swedish ladies. Friends in Need - "Alla Vi".

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• Tomas Brolin's famous goal celebration, "The pirouette" is still today popular in Sweden among amateurs as well as professionals as a dedication to him.
• For his club and for Sweden, he took most of the penalties and used a technique where he took one extra step before hitting the ball; this meant he was able to trick the opposing goalkeeping to diving one way, and then being able to roll the ball in the other way.
• He has been a great influence for many of today's professional football players including his Swedish teammate Henrik Larsson.
• He is considered a legend in Parma, as the club had its greatest successes to date during his time there.
• On 15 November 2006 Sweden was playing a friendly match against Côte d'Ivoire. Before the match striker Didier Drogba was interviewed about what he knew about Sweden. The only thing he knew was that "Sweden had a great team during Euro'92 with Tomas Brolin."
• Beside his business he is successful poker player.
• He was nominated the award for the "All-time best Swedish football player" in 2005, and came second to Henrik Larsson.

• UEFA Cup: 1
  

1994-95

• European Super Cup: 1
  

1993

• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1
  

1992-1993

• Coppa Italia: 1
  

1991-1992

• FIFA World Cup 3rd place: 1
  

1994

• Guldbollen: 2
  

1990, 1994

Preceded by Jonas Thern	Guldbollen 1990	Succeeded by Anders Limpar
Preceded by Martin Dahlin	Guldbollen 1994	Succeeded by Patrik Andersson

v • d • e Sweden squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup
1 Andersson • 2 J. Eriksson • 3 Hysén • 4 Larsson • 5 Ljung • 6 R. Nilsson • 7 Nyhlén • 8 Schwarz • 9 Engqvist • 10 Ingesson • 11 Jansson • 12 L. Eriksson • 13 Limpar • 14 J. Nilsson • 15 Strömberg • 16 Thern • 17 Brolin • 18 Ekström • 19 Gren • 20 Magnusson • 21 Pettersson • 22 Ravelli • Coach: Nordin

v • d • e Sweden squad - 1994 FIFA World Cup Third Place
1 Ravelli • 2 R. Nilsson • 3 P. Andersson • 4 Björklund • 5 Ljung • 6 Schwarz • 7 Larsson • 8 Ingesson • 9 Thern • 10 Dahlin • 11 Brolin • 12 Eriksson • 13 M. Nilsson • 14 Kåmark • 15 Lučić • 16 Limpar • 17 Rehn • 18 Mild • 19 K. Andersson • 20 Erlingmark • 21 Blomqvist • 22 Hedman • Coach: Svensson

v • d • e Crystal Palace F.C. – Managers

Robson (1905–07) • Goodman (1907–25) • Maley (1925–27) • Maven (1927–30) • Tresadern (1930–35) • Bromilow (1935–36) • Moyes (1936–36) • Bromilow (1936–39) • Irwin (1939–47) • Butler (1947–49) • Rooke (1949–50) • Dawes (1950–51) • Slade (1950–51) • Scott (1951–54) • Spiers (1954–58) • Smith (1958–60) • Rowe (1960–62) • Graham (1963–66) • Head (1966–72) • Allison (1973–76) • Venables (1976–80) • Walley (1980) • Allison (1980–81) • Gradi (1981) • Kember (1981–82) • Mullery (1982–84) • Bassett (1984) • Coppell (1984–93) • Smith (1993–95) • Coppell (1995–96) • Bassett (1996–97) • Coppell (1997–98) • Lombardo/Brolin (1998) • Noades/Lewington (1998) • Venables (1998–99) • Coppell (1999–2000) • Smith (2000–01) • Kember (2001) • Bruce (2001) • Kember/Bullivant (2001) • Francis (2001–03) • Kember (2003) • Symons (2003) • Dowie (2003–06) • Taylor (2006–07) • Symons (2007) • Warnock (2007–)