Tomas Brolin was once among Europe’s brightest talents, finishing fourth in the 1994 Ballon d’Or and helping Sweden to a third-place World Cup finish. But by 1998, aged just 28, he had retired from football — to sell vacuum cleaner nozzles.
In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, Brolin recalled meeting inventor Goran Edlund, who had created a new, lighter vacuum nozzle. “He was a strange guy: an inventor. He proposed a new idea for a new type of vacuum cleaner. I was literally drawn in and started a company with him,” Brolin said.
He invested in Twinner, a brand that still operates in Sweden and the UK. “At the time, everyone told me that at 28, it was too early to retire,” he added. “Life is too short to do boring things. I needed something more.”
Brolin’s football career may have ended abruptly, but his post-football story became just as remarkable.