Tomas Brolin: Leeds United’s Swedish Enigma

We’ve had a fair few Scandinavian footballers at the club over the last couple of decades though, one who splits opinion the most is probably Brolin – dubbed by some as our worst ever signing.

The Swede was a mainstay in Howard Wilkinson’s side in the nineties, with the former manager signing Brolin in 1995 as an ideal strike partner for Tony Yeboah. When we signed him for £4.5 million from Italian outfit Parma, it seemed like we’d brought in a world beater.

I didn’t realise, but he also turned down approaches from three Italian clubs to move to us, which I think says a lot about how much of a magnet we were at the time.

Full name – Per Tomas Brolin, among fans he became known as ‘Baby Faced Assassin’, quickly making his mark on our team and fanbase, it seems.

His first goal for us came in mid-December in a 6-2 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday and he scored his second a day after Boxing Day in a 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers. The following month in a game against West Ham United and without both Yeboah and Brian Deane, Brolin bagged a brace in a 2-0 win.

Clashes With Wilkinson

It seems he had a couple of clashes with Wilkinson not long after this – Wilkinson had a go at him for not being a team player and failing to do a good enough job with his defensive contributions.

Eventually getting dropped, despite Wilkinson having nine other players out injured or suspended, it appears he was then listed as being injured.

The tension between the two lasted another few weeks until a frankly, ridiculous April Fool’s prank backfired – I was lost for words when I found out about this! It seems that Brolin told Swedish television he would go out on loan to IFK Norrkoping for the remainder of the season. This though was picked up by a few major media outlets and reported as fact, so Brolin had to dig deep to say sorry to Wilkinson.

His days were undoubtedly already numbered at Leeds with Wilkinson seemingly having made up his mind. He went to Sweden at the end of the season to have surgery on an ankle injury and struggled to really break his way back into the first team.

Eventually Brolin was loaned out to FC Zurich during the following season with his relationship with Wilkinson in a state of disrepair. After another loan to Parma, Brolin moved to Crystal Palace.

Tomas Brolin Leeds United Stats