I came fourth in the Ballon d'Or and was the most expensive foreign player in British football history… but I now sell vacuum cleaners

Imagine Mohamed Salah quitting football tonight. It is unfathomable. Never on this planet would you foresee that happening. 

What would it take to make him leave? A chance to play at the World Chess Championships? A new deal as the President of Egypt? A pay-off worth more than the roughly £34million he is still set to earn at Liverpool before his contract expires in 2027? Even then, I'm not so sure. 

Or how about him quitting to... sell vacuum cleaner nozzles?

That's exactly what Tomas Brolin did in 1998. Just as Mohamed Salah finished fourth in the Ballon d'Or vote this year, so too had Tomas Brolin in 1994, just four years before he retired. 

Alright, the Salah comparison is a big stretch. Admittedly, things had taken a downturn for Brolin due to injury and weight struggles, and he was a flop at Leeds, but he still had some talent. Aged 28, he had years of his career ahead of him to rebuild his name.

So, why did a man widely recognised as one of the greatest Swedish footballers ever pack it all in to sell noisy domestic products and play poker? 

It all came about thanks to a meeting with inventor Goran Edlund. The entrepreneuer had developed a new vacuum cleaner nozzle - one that was lighter, more efficient, and easier to clean than its rivals. A offer no self-respecting hooverer can refuse. 

He was looking for investment, and Brolin was keen. He took a 50 per cent stake in the Twinner, a brand which is still going today and shifting units in Sweden and the United Kingdom. 

'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. It was that push that made me never want to go back,' Brolin told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

'At the time, everyone told me that at 28, it was too early to retire, but I replied: "It depends on what you've done in those 28 years." I had already achieved a lot. Life is too short to do boring things. I don't do things I don't enjoy.

'I needed something more. My mind was looking for new experiences, and being an entrepreneur was useful for me. I discovered a new world, learned a trade, and challenged myself again.

'Now, if I think about it, I come to the conclusion that I've always wanted to challenge myself in every area. I did it with football, I did it with business.'

And so he launched himself in. Just like that, Brolin's football career was no more.

He is right to say he had achieved a lot. Brolin had helped  Sweden to finish thrid in the 1994 World Cup, by far their best finish in the modern era. He had been part of the iconic Parma team of the 1990s, winning the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, UEFA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, and Coppa Italia. Twice he had been named Swedish footballer of the year. 

He is also a name many English fans are likely to remember after he scored the goal that knocked Graham Taylor's men out of Euro 1992. 

And in November 1995, Brolin joined Howard Wilkinson's Leeds United as their record signing for £4.5million. There were some concerns over his weight, but optimism was in the air. 

Leeds had just finished fifth in the Premier League, while Brolin had a chance to supercharge his career. He had suffered a horrific ankle injury in the summer of 1994 and hardly played in his last year at Parma. 

And things started okay. He quickly earned the nickname of the 'baby-faced assassin', though the sentiment didn't last for long as his fitness dipped and his form dropped. 

Wilkinson was not impressed with his work ethic, but Brolin seemed optimistic. 'When you are out for almost a year, as I was, you need time,' he said.

'I need also time to get used to the Premiership - maybe more time than I thought I would need. It is hard, fast football and there are no easy games. I have the option to go at the end of the season but I still want to do well and succeed in England.'

There were also mitigating circumstances. Brolin had arrived understanding that he would be pulling the strings in attacking midfield, but ended up being deployed as a striker or on the right flank - positions not as familiar to him.  

The writing was on the wall. Later that year, an April Fools' interview with Swedish TV also backfired. Brolin jokingly announced that he was going on loan to Swedish side IFK Norrkoping, but the media took it seriously and the news was relayed around the world. Little did he know that he would soon genuinely be out the door. 

By the summer of 1996, just a year after he joined, Leeds were willing to sell him for £2m - less than half what they had signed him for. 

'Quite frankly, I would rather have anyone in any position in my team who wanted to do well for Leeds United than someone who didn't,' said Wilkinson. 

Loans to Zurich (on £800 per week) and Parma followed for the 1996-97 season, and when he returned at the end of that summer, he was faced with a manager who he described as an 'even bigger idiot' than Wilkinson - George Graham.

Except, Brolin didn't help himself. He was late arriving to Leeds' pre-season camp because, according to him, a bird hit his windscreen and delayed him, causing him to miss his plane. When he did finally turn up, Graham locked his passport in a cupboard while the rest of the team went on their tour. 

Just to make it clear how unwelcome he was, Brolin wasn't even allowed to watch Leeds at Elland Road for free. He called it 'bullying' - Graham branded him 'disrespectful'.

He did finally get a move, but only to Crystal Palace, where he was deemed 'too fat to play' and ended up getting relegated. He retired after a short stint with Swedish fourth-tier outfit Hudiksvall ABK in 1998 after playing one game there. A humble end. 

Brolin's reputation in English football is abysmal. In 2003, Leeds fans voted him as the club's worst player in living memory in a BBC Sport poll.

And in 2007, his reputation was blown to smithereens. The Times asked fans: who is the worst player in the top flight since 1970? Ali Dia, the fake cousin of George Weah who lasted 52 minutes at Southampton, came top. And second? That'd be Brolin.

Maybe the vacuum cleaners weren't such a bad idea after all...