The Swedish Maradona!!! Tomas Brolin was born November 29 1969 and spent his childhood in Finflo near Hudiksvall in the north of Sweden. He has a younger brother, Håkan and a younger sister, Marie. During his career as a professional soccer player, he has played in Finflo Flyers, Näsvikens IF, GIF Sundsvall, IFK Norrköping, Parma AC, Leeds United, FC Zürich and Crystal Palace. Tomas was a utility player and could play striker (as was shown with great effect in Euro 92), in the midfield. He went to Parma from the Swedish team IFK Norköpping when he was 20 years old. During his only year with IFK (1990) Brolin played 11 games and scored 7 goals. Before that he played for the Swedish team GIF Sundsvall where he scored an average of one goal a game in his three years there. In Italy he scored a goal every six games but played much deeper in the midfield than he did in GIF Sundsvall. Tomas has often been called "The Swedish Maradona" because of his amazing skill. He had the ability to work very hard in the midfield and got away when things got hard. He is one of the few players who cover the whole field. He was injured on November 16 1994 when he damaged his foot during the match against Hungary and he couldn`t play football until May 1995. That injury not only shattered Parma's title ambitions but also put a hole in Sweden's Euro campaign and paved the way for Turkey to qualify in second place in Sweden's qualifying group. Due to his amount of goals in his limited time for IFK Norköping in 1990 Tomas was signed by Parma. He was chosen in Sweden's World Cup squad and versus Brazil scored a sensational goal. He was named Sweden's "Player Of The Year" that same year. He was one of the few players anywhere in the world to score twice in his national debut. He achieved the Golden Ball in 1990 and in 1994 and won the bronze medal with Sweden in the World Cup 1994 in the USA. At that time he was one of the best players in the world. After that Tomas Brolin suffered a broken ankle in November 1994.He never again became the fotballplayer he used to be. After the foot injury, he was no longer good enough to stay in Parma, so he went to Leeds. He wasn’t good enough for them either, and he had some problems with the manager, so he joined FC Zürich on loan in June 1996, and after that he joined Crystal Palace. On August 12 1996 he decided to end his football career. Nowadays he designs and sells shoes which are quite famous in Sweden. © 1999 Freeway Writers: Daniel Hägglund (sp01-32@park.se), Daniel Stenlund (sp01-44@park.se). HTML by: Andreas Westin (nv01-23@park.se). Profiles