In the early 1990s Per Tomas Brolin was the golden boy of Swedish football. When he played his first match when he was just six years old at Forssåtunet, and often played on 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 in 1984 at the age of 14. By the age of 19 Brolin was playing for Giffarna in the Swedish top division, but wanted another challenge after the team were relegated in 1989. Regarded as one of Sweden’s brightest prospects, Brolin was not going to spend another season in the second division, and in the bidding war that ensued between Sweden’s top clubs, champions IFK Norrköping won out and in his first game young Brolin bagged a hat-trick.
However, it was his hat-trick in his league debut in a 6-0 victory over IFK Göteborg that grabbed all the headlines and alerted Sweden’s then coach Olle Nordin to the talents of the new golden boy of Swedish football. Sweden had just qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1978 and were looking for a forward to lead their frontline, having managed a mere nine goals in six matches during the qualifying rounds. Eighteen days later, Brolin was lining up against Wales, and five minutes after the mighty Dean Saunders had given the visitors the lead, Brolin announced his arrival on the international stage with two goals in six minutes to give Sweden a 2-1 lead. Sweden won 4-2 on the night, and Brolin went onto score another two in the following match with Finland a month later, in which Sweden won 6-0. After only two matches and four goals, Olle Nordin had found the player that led his attack in the 1990 World Cup in Italy. After strong performances in the finals, particularly in scoring against Brazil, Brolin’s club were flooded with phone calls from clubs, he eventually signed for Italian club AC Parma for £1.2 million pounds.
Parma had just been promoted to Serie A, Italy’s top flight for the first time in their history, and had spent some of their benefactors’ Parmelat’s millions, breaking the Swedish transfer record in buying one of the best young talents at the World Cup. Like every promoted club coming up from Serie B, Parma were expected by critics to struggle playing teams such as Juventus and AC Milan, every week. However, the team became one of the revelations of the 1990-91 season, managing to qualify for Europe in their first season in Serie A. In 1991-92, Brolin was ever present in his second season with Parma, playing in all 34 Serie A matches, scoring 4 goals, as Parma finished in joint sixth place. However it was the club’s run in the Coppa Italia, Parma beating Juventus 2-1 on aggregate to lift their first trophy in the club’s history.
In Euro 92, a home tournament for the Swedes, Brolin truly came to the attention of the whole of Europe; he was joint top-scorer with three others; his goal against England did much to raise his profile. In the 1992-93 season, with Parma in the European Cup Winners’ Cup, the club splashed out on two foreign imports Colombian Faustino Asprilla and Argentine Sergio Berti. The addition of Asprilla and Berti meant the positions of Parma’s three foreigners Taffarel, Grün and Brolin were not guaranteed, as the club could only field three stranieri in a match. Scala wanted to field Brolin, Asprilla and Grün in the side, which meant Taffarel lost his place, while Sergio Berti failed to impress, making only four appearances all season.
It was the signing of explosive Colombian forward Faustino Asprilla for £3m by the Italian club in 1992 that was the making of Brolin, forcing a change in the Swede’s playing position in the team. Before the Colombian’s arrival at Parma, Brolin had been playing up front, however Parma’s coach benched Brolin in favour of Asprilla for most of the season. However, a mysterious injury to the Colombian while on holiday, just before the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final, meant he missed the match against Antwerp, giving Brolin a starting place alongside Melli. Brolin helped the club lift the European Cup Winners’ Cup by defeating the Belgian club 3-1 at Wembley. The following season, the club signed duo Gianfranco Zola, putting Brolin’s place in the team even furtherin the balance. However, the coach Nevio Scala, having seen the benefit of playing Brolin in midfield during the previous season, decided to play Brolin in a deeper position than his first three seasons at the club. The club reached the final of the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup once again, where they played Arsenal, but this time despite Brolin coming close to scoring in the first fifteen minutes, even hitting the post, Parma lost 1-0, and a dejected Brolin walked off the pitch with a loser’s medal.
Nevertheless, Brolin went to the 1994 World Cup in the best shape of his career. At the tender age of 23, he had the world at his feet. Sweden, despite having a talented group of players, were not predicted to go far at the World Cup in America, and after they scraped a draw with Cameroon in their opening game, not much was expected of them, or indeed Brolin. Brolin had other ideas though, and in Sweden’s next game with Russia, he delivered a match-winning performance as Sweden won 3-1. His battling qualities were demonstrated in the opening goal in Sweden’s last group match against favourites Brazil, when he collected a long ball from defence, chesting the ball down and at the same time, shielding it from defender Márcio Santos, before beating him and playing a delightful cross-wing ball to Kennet Andersson, who chested the ball, and flicked it past Parma team mate Taffarel to make it 1-0. Sweden eventually drew 1-1 with the Brazilians and reached the second round. In the quarter final against Romania, he scored one of his most famous goals, going on to score 3 goals in the tournament, Sweden surprising many by finishing third in the competition. Brolin’s performances earned him a place in the competition’s ‘World Cup All Star Team’.
There was speculation after the World Cup that Barcelona were prepared to swap their unsettled star Hristo Stoichkov for Brolin, but he remained at a team that looked truly capable of challenging the likes of AC Milan and Juventus for the Scudetto. On November 16th, 1994, at the Råsunda Stadion in Stockholm, the same stage where Brolin came to the attention of the Swedish fans with his doubles against Wales and Finland in 1990, he broke his foot and all but ended his playing career. At the time of Brolin’s injury, Parma were two points clear at the top of the Italian league, while Sweden were set to qualify for the 1996 European Championship as they sat top of their group. However, in Brolin’s absence both Parma and Sweden floundered, and by the time Brolin returned in April, 1995 to a standing ovation by the Parma faithful as a substitute in a league match against Inter Milan, Parma were a whopping eight points behind leaders and eventual champions Juventus, and Sweden were in third place behind Switzerland and Turkey, looking like they would miss out on the 1996 European Championship, which they eventually did.
Parma signed Hristo Stoichkov for £6.5m, big money back then, as Brolin tried to get back to full fitness for the start of the 1995-96 season, and despite some outstanding performances early on, coach Scala still felt the player lacked fitness, and would not be able to play in the central midfield role he had once vacated before his injury. Instead the Italian Under-21 midfielder Massimo Brambilla bought in during the summer from Reggiana took his place for the opening match of the season against Atalanta, where Stoichkov scored on his debut. His time at the club was clearly over.
Brolin turned down moves to three other Italian clubs, and in the end, Leeds United, became front runners for his signature, and in November, 1995, and after agreeing a fee of £4.5m he joined the Yorkshire club. Manager Howard Wilkinson saw Brolin as the perfect foil for the club’s top scorer Tony Yeboah, and on the day of the signing, he said:
‘He is a class player, and I believe he will prove to be an excellent buy for Leeds. I am sure he is going to be an excellent partner for Tony Yeboah.’
This was also the view of the Ghanaian forward:
‘I am sure Tomas and I are going to work well together. He is truly world class. He can weigh in with goals of his own, and link up with the other players in the side. We are going to be very difficult to defend against.’
Brolin believed he needed matches to get back to his best and slowly worked his way into the team, scoring his first goal for the club against Sheffield Wednesday in December, in which they lost 6-2. The goal was one of the most bizarre goals he or anyone else for that matter ever scored in his career, it came in the 28 minute as Leeds trailed 3-0, when Gary Kelly crossed from the right onto the head of Brolin, he managed to head the ball, and in a lapse in concentration in the Wednesday defence, they stood still, giving Brolin the time to challenge keeper Kevin Pressman for the ball. The ball hit the keeper and Brolin and was going goalwards until Wednesday defender Steve Nicol cleared it off the line, only to hit Brolin on the head as he lay on the ground and go into the net. Brolin still celebrated in his usual style. The match was Leeds’ heaviest defeat in seven years under Howard Wilkinson, and at the end of the match the manager diplomatically said that they were at a ‘crossroads’.
In the next match came Brolin’s best performance for the club, a home fixture on Christmas Eve against Manchester United. He outshone everyone in Manchester United’s team, including Roy Keane, a young David Beckham in midfield, and even the old Leeds favourite Eric Cantona. Brolin was the best attacking influence on the pitch, playing a part in all three of Leeds’ goals, as they won 3-1 on the day. Brolin continued to be a regular starter playing in a 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers, in which he scored his second goal for the club. In January he played against Blackburn, however seven days later Brolin was dropped for the third round FA Cup tie with Derby County after manager Wilkinson said that the player was unsuited to the “heated atmosphere” of a cup-tie. Leeds won 4-2, and Brolin returned three days later on January 10, for fifth round tie match in Coca Cola Cup against Reading F.C., in which Leeds won 2-1, and then on January 13, Brolin hit two goals as 10 man Leeds United, without Yeboah and Deane, beat West Ham United 2-0 at Elland Road, and on Match of the Day that night, pundit Alan Hansen remarked that “clever” Brolin was the reason for the victory, as he scored from the same position that he had crossed for Deane to score the winner against Manchester United, and knowing that there was no target man in the box, he scored himself. The two goals put Brolin’s goal return at four in eight Premiership matches.
Then came a 5-0 defeat to Liverpool on January 20th, after the match Brolin and Wilkinson clashed over the player’s defensive abilities, saying he was not pulling his weight, however Brolin said that he was bought as a creative attacking player, and was not prepared to drop deep in midfield. Brolin was at odds with manager Wilkinson having been told to play in a defensive role wide on the right in the 5-0 hammering at Anfield. He played in the 2-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest on January 31, but was dropped for the league match against Aston Villa despite Wilkinson missing nine first team players through suspensions, injuries and international duty.
“Presumably, I didn’t wake up in the middle of the night and have a vision, if Brolin had done well he would have played. I picked a team from 15 available players, with nine either suspended, injured or on international duty. I decided the team at Villa would be better without Tomas Brolin. If he had been playing brilliantly I would have picked him – but before we played Liverpool Brolin was concerned about the amount of defending he had to do for the side. He suggested I reconsider, he expressed the opinion he wasn’t very good at it and he felt my decision to leave him out at Villa was eminently sensible.”
Howard Wilkinson, February, 1996
Leeds still lost 3-0 to Villa, and Brolin missed the following matches after he picked up an injury during training. Brolin who had claimed that was another season before he was at his best, returned to the team, as Leeds beat Birmingham City 3-0 on February 25, in the second leg of the Coca Cola Cup semi-finals to play Aston Villa at Wembley, and then came on in the second half of the fifth round of the FA Cup to rescue the club, as Leeds trailed 1-0 to lowly Port Vale F.C., and looked like they were going out, however a lovely piece of skill from Brolin on the left wing, gave him the space to escape the close attentions of the Vale defence and cross for Gary McAllister to score with a header after 63 minutes to make it 1-1. McAllister added a second from a free kick two minutes from time, to put Leeds through.
Brolin was back in the side, and played until he was dropped for the sixth round replay against Liverpool, which Leeds lost 3-0. Then came the Coca Cola Cup Final on March 24th at Wembley against Aston Villa, and Brolin was again on the bench, and after a chorus of “Why is Brolin on the bench?” rang around Wembley, the Swede came on after 65 minutes, and trotted onto the pitch with applause from the Leeds fans, however they were 2-0 down, and conceded another in the last minute, as they lost 3-0.
“If I cannot play from the start in a final like that. I have to think about my future. I don’t know where my future lies now. I wanted to play on Sunday, but the manager thinks his way and I think mine. Perhaps we should go our separate ways. I have to go away and think about my future and whether I want to play for Leeds. The way I feel at the moment, I think I must try to find another team.”
Tomas Brolin , March, 1996
He was dropped for the next match against Middlesbrough, which Leeds lost 1-0 and in early April Brolin had to apologise to Howard Wilkinson after an April Fool’s Day prank backfired, when he told Swedish television he was going to play out the season on loan to former club IFK Norrköping. He returned on April 3rd, in the 1-0 victory over Southampton F.C., and played in the following matches, playing his last match of the season at Stamford Bridge on April 14th, setting up McAllister’s goal in a 4-1 defeat. He reiterated his intention of leaving Leeds after the Chelsea defeat and was dropped for the following match against Manchester United.
On April 16th, Brolin was then dropped by Swedish coach Tommy Svensson for a friendly against Northern Ireland in Belfast, and was quoted “Brolin is not at 100 percent at the moment and it is difficult to say when he will be.” Brolin told Swedish news agency TT that it was the best for him, and the national side “Right now I need to recover in order to get to the capacity needed to add something to the national team.”
On May 1st, it was announced by the club that Brolin had returned home to Sweden undergo surgery to remove scar tissue from his troublesome ankle, and was not fit for Leeds’ last two league matches. However, his future at Leeds was in doubt.
In the summer of 1996, Brolin went searching for a club and was granted three extra days by Wilkinson to find a new club, however interest from Verona, Bari, Fiorentina and a serious bid by Sampdoria turned to nothing, while Spanish clubs Real Betis, Espanyol, and Real Sociedad were also reportedly interested in signing the player. On 19 August 1996, Leeds Utd announced that Brolin was on the transfer market and were prepared to sell him for nearly 2m less than the 4.5m paid for him. Leeds manager Wikinson had fined Brolin a week’s wages around £12,000 for not turning up to pre-season training and announced he was seeking guidance from the Professional Footballers’ Association on the legality of withholding Brolin’s wages, and told the press that he would rather have any player in my team than him. Leeds stopped his wages when he refused to show up for pre-season training and reportedly saved £72,000 by the time Brolin had joined FC Zürich on loan, where he received the minimum wage of £800-a-week for a player in the Swiss League. When asked about Wilkinson’s sacking 48 hours after a 4-0 defeat to Manchester United on September 9th, Brolin’s reply was “I’m not surprised he’s gone.”
Brolin joined the Swiss club on August 20th and played three matches for FC Zürich in the Nationalliga A. Brolin wanted to stay at the club until their mid-season winter break in December to get back into full fitness but Leeds under new coach George Graham wanted him back at Elland Road and refused to allow him to play for the club against FC St.Gallen on October 9th. George Graham was quoted as saying “We have heard nothing from Tomas Brolin. We have not even got a telephone number for him. All our correspondence with him has been done through his agent, Lars Peterson.” However Brolin stayed away and on October 14, he threatened to retire than to play for Leeds again, while in Bangkok he said “I am not going to change my mind and I am not going back.”
Leeds Utd then gave Brolin an ultimatium to return to the club or face legal action, and then a proposed loan move to Sampdoria collapsed after a medical when a metal staple in his foot scuppered a move back to Italy, with a view to a permanent £2 million move to the club despite all of doctors at his previous clubs Parma, Leeds and FC Zürich “It’s going to be tough, word gets around, I met Sampdoria in Lyon and negotiated. The only thing remaining was a doctor’s certificate and they sent me to a doctor for an examination. It was a purely routine thing and the thing I was least concerned about. And then the doctor said the staple had to be taken out before he would recommend me for Sampdoria. He thought the staple would give me problems in training and games. I was in shock when I left the doctor’s. I can hardly believe it would end up like this. I don’t have much hope that Sampdoria will change their minds,” he added, saying it would take six to eight weeks after an operation before he could play.
Leeds urged Brolin, to return to Yorkshire and have tests on his damaged ankle to clarify the extent of the injury, fearing Brolin would be forced to retire, and wanted him to seek a second opinion from a leading orthopaedic surgeon. The club’s director and solicitor, Peter McCormick, on November 19 said: “The player has now appointed a Fifa-registered agent in London. I have sent a lengthy communication to him requesting that Brolin returns to this country to be examined by a leading orthopaedic surgeon. Once that examination has been carried out and the results are known, Leeds will be in a position to consider the various legal options before taking the next step.”
Then on December 24th, Brolin paid £500,000 of his own money to fund his loan move back to Parma until the end of the season. Brolin trained with the club, however much had changed and the Swede was no longer the coach’s number one choice, the new coach was Carlo Ancelotti, with his rigid 4-4-2 formation that had ousted Zola from the club. Brolin returned to first team action on February 23, 1997 to a standing ovation as a second half sub in a 2-0 win over Lazio, and continued to make substitute appearances.
He played in an exhibition match at the Olympic Stadium in Montjuïc, in Barcelona on April 26 for the International Association of Professional Footballers (AIFP), in which he was a founding member. Brolin played against Udinese (0-2) on 28 April as a sub, and with Parma having several injuries and suspensions, Ancellotti handed Brolin his first and only start in his second spell at the Italian club on May 4 in a 2-1 win over Atalanata, and made another appearance in the 3-0 win over Vicenza on May 11. Brolin even played a part in Parma’s title run-in with Juventus, making substitute appearances against A.C. Milan (1-1) on May 15, and against Juventus (1-1) on May 25, coming on after Crespo limped off with a hamstring injury. His last appearance came on the last game of the season, on June 1, in a 2-1 win over Verona, as Parma finished in their best ever position, in second place. By the end of the season, it was clear that Parma were not interested in keeping the player and had only accepted to sign him on loan to keep him fit after so many years of loyal service to the Parma club.
On June 16th, 1997 his loan deal with Parma expired and under the terms of the agreement, once it expired the player was obligated to return to Elland Road within 72 hours, and the player after speaking to his agent John Smith returned back to the club, however he was axed by coach George Graham along with four other star players Ian Rush, Carlton Palmer, Tony Dorigo and Brian Deane for the club’s pre-season tour of Sweden, as they did not figure in the coach’s future plans and Brolin was stuck playing in the reserves. French champions, Monaco were reportedly interested in signing Brolin by royal request, after Prince Albert, an admirer of the player, suggested that the club sign him in a £2m move, however it was all rumours. On August 29th, a £1 million loan move to Real Zaragoza fell through over wrangles over personal details, and in the end he missed the Spanish transfer deadline, and then was fined by the Leeds club for being absent for training for three days which he disputed saying that it came about after “a breakdown in communications.” Brolin travelled to Edinburgh on September 15 to have a look at the city and Hearts and to have to talk to manager Jim Jefferies about a loan move to Hearts, however the deal fell through according to Brolin’s agent as the club could not match a long-term fee but the Hearts chief Chris Robinson pulled the plug on the deal due to the player’s fitness. After the two failed loan deals, Brolin continued to train and play in the reserves. Then after missing training and a reserve match against Liverpool F.C., to celebrate his father’s 50th birthday on October 6, as well as publicly attacking George Graham in an article in a Sunday tabloid, the club fined him £90,000. The player threatened to take the club to a Premiership tribunal however on October 28th, 1997 after a meeting with club officials, Tomas Brolin and his representatives, his contract with the club was terminated, with the player reportedly walking off with around £140,000, helping Leeds save up to £700,000 in wages on the remainder of his contract. Although he recovered from the injury, he never seemed to regain his pre-injury level of fitness, and had arrived in England at the end of 1995 with an obvious weight problem, earning him the nickname “Tubby” Tomas Brolin and made only 19 Premiership appearances for Leeds, scoring 4 goals over the next two seasons.
On November 16th, 1997 Steve Coppell the manager of struggling Crystal Palace offered Brolin a two week trial, and a return to English football. A Palace spokesman said. “He wants to see what the player’s attitude is like and a permanent deal is not out of the question.” Palace had been playing a friendly in Sweden, and Coppell was hoping to finalise the two week trial while he was there, with Brolin training with Hammarby in Stockholm. On December 19th, Coppell was quoted “He’s free at the moment and I’ve just said if he wants to come and train with us and make himself available then fine. We are in contact with him through intermediaries. I think realistically he is only going to commit himself until the end of the season and we probably only have a need until the end of the season. But at least we give him an opportunity to re-establish himself. I think he is only 28 but he has got a lot to do. He’s been out of the game for close to three months so he’s got to look for the best opportunity he can to show that he’s a top quality player. It’s not a gamble because we wouldn’t be paying anything for him. We’re providing him with a short-term opportunity. We don’t open our doors for any Tom, Dick or Harry. He has the potential but he’s got to prove it. He hasn’t done it for a long time.”
The trial began on January 5th, 1998 and Brolin said “I am here and I am training and I am going to show my fitness and that I am not a forgotten football player. “I needed to clear out my mind and it was time to think about my situation. Now I will give it a go here and see what happens after these two weeks. “They are going to try to stay in the Premiership and they are going to battle until the last day. I think they are going to make it – I saw them at Leeds and they won 2-0. They are a very good team.” With a player shortage, Brolin was asked by Coppell as a favour to play for the club in a league match, he agreed and Brolin was registered as a player for the club and allocated the No.12 jersey. “I only started training five days ago, so when the manager Steve Coppell asked me if I would play I thought it was a joke, but he was serious and because of the terrible problems with injuries I said yes. I want to get back into football and playing with no payment shows how much that is true”. He played in the home league match against Everton F.C. on January 10th, and was the team’s liveliest player even netting in the 72 minute only to see the referee rule it out for offside. The club lost 3-1 but Brolin, whose trial ended on January 16th, was handed a contract until the end of the season.
“I only started training five days ago, so when the manager Steve Coppell asked me if I would play I thought it was a joke, but he was serious and because of the terrible problems with injuries I said yes. I want to get back into football and playing with no payment shows how much that is true. I think I showed them on Saturday. I was here without a contract and did not really need to play that kind of game if I did not want to. Steve Coppell asked me to help us because we did not have any players and I said ‘of course’. I needed a club which believed in me and it seems like at Crystal Palace they still believe in me. I have been here for two weeks without money. That’s not important. The most important thing is that I have that appetite back. I told them I would train for two weeks and we would take it from there. I enjoyed the game on Saturday even though we lost and it’s very nice to be back on the pitch and here the crowd behind you. It’s been really difficult to find the kind of people after a lot of rumours in Europe about me. The people who know me they laugh at all the stories the press made up. The press have the wrong picture about me. The people who don’t know me can say what they like but it’s most important to me what my friends think. I will tell everyone what happened at Leeds one day but not today. There is still a story there. When I went back to Leeds I did very well in the reserves but it did not matter what I did because the manager would not let me train with the first team. I couldn’t do anything more. It took a lot of me but now I’m ready to give everything to Palace. I need to do good work and play well and do a good job.” I want to take these four months and see how it is. Even after I signed for Leeds it was OK for a couple of weeks. I think we have a good team spirit, good players and I think if we can get a few players back from injury I don’t think we can go out of the Premiership. I think I need three or four weeks to have the form I had four months ago at Leeds when I trained regularly but on Saturday I played 90 minutes and it can only get better. I feel it’s the right thing for me at the moment. I am going to fight for a place in the team and we are going to fight for a place in the Premiership.”
Tomas Brolin , January, 1998
In his next game on January 17, he returned to Yorkshire to play Barnsley F.C. and was at fault for the only goal of the game, after he lost possession to Darren Sheridan, however he lso saw an equaliser disallowed for handball after earlier heading against the crossbar from seven yards. Brolin admitted that he was still some way away from being fully fit despite again playing for the first team, and was only going straight into the first team because of a number of injuries at the club, but was on the right path to getting back to something near full fitness. ” It is very important to be involved again. If I wasn’t perhaps I would have thought about quitting football. I really feel at home now at Crystal Palace and I hope we can stay in the Premiership I need another three or four weeks to regain peak fitness. I have regained my appetite for the game.” After the match his manager said “He cost us a goal but you cannot escape the fact that he is a good player. “His physical condition isn’t good at the moment and for the next few weeks he will find it hard to get back into the routine of full time training again. But he is a quality player. Two years ago he cost £4million or £5million and we got him for nought. So I’m not complaining.”
“I have only been here for a short time but there is a good team spirit and if players come back from injuries I don’t think that we will go out of the Premiership I want to take these four months and then see what happens. I am a free agent now and don’t want to find myself in the same situation again as I was in at Leeds. I am just very happy now. Then I will take other questions after May when we know Palace’s Premiership position. Crystal Palace came in before Christmas and asked me to train with them but I did not know what to do, so I stayed at home with my family and friends. I have not been in London so often so I really don’t know if I will like it here. I need to have the form which I had before I went to Leeds. It is very nice with the Palace players who encourage me. If you have lost that appetite it is very important to have that support. Leeds was the lowest point in my career. Eversince I came to England in November 1995 it has been like that for me as my problems started then. Leeds treated me like rubbish, although the supporters were behind me all the time. I think that this is the right move for me and we are going to fight all the way to stay in the Premiership. I have been thinking for two months whether I am ready to come back but now I am ready to give everything to Crystal Palace and then wait to see if that is enough this season. It is important that Steve Coppell believes in me and that I can do a good job for his team. I think that my bad boy reputation is unjustified. The most important thing is that my friends laugh at those stories as the wrong picture has been painted of me”.
Tomas Brolin, January, 1998
In only his third game for the club, Brolin came up against his old club Leeds United on January 31. Brolin was still overweight, but managed to get a starting place in the team, he had shown his loyalty to the club adding that he may stay for more than a season “Whatever happens this season, Palace will have first shout on me in the summer. I will stay if they want me because they have let me back into football. I am totally committed to Palace and want to help them stay in the Premier League”. On the eve of the match he stated “I like the atmosphere at this club. At Leeds I was not treated like a human being and I could not wait to get away.” However after only five minutes against his former employers he had to come off after a collision with Bruno Ribeiro, which left him dazed and needing stitches to a head wound. And while he was off the field having treatment, Leeds scored, and as Brolin returned to the field six minutes later, they scored again to make it 2-0. After the ball was kicked at Brolin’s head the bandage come off his head, but the Swede battled through. In the second half, Brolin dropped deeper and deeper in a desperate attempt to make an impact on the game, his touch and vision still obvious but his match fitness clearly not yet back after a lengthy lay off from the game.
“ Brolin didn’t do much, did he? He was very quiet and I can’t understand what all the hype was about. Apart from a couple of decent seasons with Parma, what’s he ever done? You tell me. People think I fell out with him, but that’s not the case at all. He told me he didn’t want to play for Leeds, so there was no point in keeping him at the club. I wish him all the best for the future. I spent time at Palace as a player and a coach and I still have a soft spot for the club. So I wish him and them well.”
George Graham, January, 1998
Brolin went onto play twelve more times for Palace, mostly as a striker due to the London clubs shortage of players up-front but failed to help them avoid relegation. In March, after a 6-2 defeat to Chelsea, the London club under the new ownership of Mark Goldberg decided Steve Coppell would step down as manager and take up a job in the club’s development, with star player Attilio Lombardo taking over as player-manager. However, despite it being widely reported that Brolin was to be his assistant coach, Palace chairman Goldberg insisted that the fluent Italian and English speaking Brolin was merely Lombardo’s interpreter to ‘help with interpreting in training and match situations’.
Brolin’s last competitive game came in the 3-0 defeat to Manchester United in April, 1998, and was substituted. Brolin was unable to recapture his form or fitness failing to score in 15 appearances for the Eagles and did not figure in the last three games of the season, by which time relegation was confirmed. He later was released by the London club in May, 1998, and returned back to Sweden to think over his future. In August that year, he announced his retirement from the game and made his last appearance on August 29, 1998 in the last 15 minutes for Hudiksvalls A.B.K. against Kiruna FF as a goalkeeper.
In 2007 he was voted in at Number 2 in The Times poll of the 50 Worst footballers (to grace the Premiership).
After retiring from football, Tomas Brolin settled down to become a businessman and returned to his homeland where he owns an Italian-Swedish restaurant called “Undici” (Italian: 11, the number he wore while playing for Parma. Brolin has been an active World Series Poker player, since 2006.
