Apr

17

FROM THIS ............................. TO THIS

(FORMER LEEDS UNITED STAR NOW MAKES HIS MONEY PLAYING POKER)

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You may have to travel to his home town of Nasviken in Sweden to be told he was a great player but the fact remains that Tomas Brolin was a star of 90's football in Europe.

Leeds United and Crystal Palace supporters in particular will remember the impish attacking midfielder with the baby face during his spell with both clubs in the mid to late 90s.

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But it was perhaps at Parma where he truly made his name winning a Uefa Cup, European Super Cup, Cup Winners Cup and Coppa Italia during his five seasons with the club. 

And in the 1994 World Cup in the USA Brolin and Sweden came to within a whisker of qualifying for the final itself only for a late goal from Brazil's Romario to clinch the final spot for the South Americans on a 1-0 score line.

Sweden went on the clinch the 3rd place play off match and Brolin was painted across the globe as the 'golden boy of swedish football.' The youngster had banged in three goals in Sweden's amazing campaign and came close to being voted player of the tournament. Indeed for his efforts he was voted to the World Cup 94 All Star Team.

Fourteen years on the baby face is gone as is the athlete's physique! He has exchanged the football pitch for the poker table and now he can be found at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final.

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He has already been guaranteed prize money in excess of his only notable poker finish so far, when he won $17,710 for finishing 17th at the 2007 Grand Final.

Initially after retiring from football Brolin settled to become a businessman and returned to his homeland where he opened 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.

Now though the tubby former pin-up is playing his cards right and rapidly rising through European's poker ranks.

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This page contains a single entry by Graham Clifford published on April 17, 2008 12:41 PM .

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