Bram Appel

Club

Born in Rotterdam but raised in The Hague, Appel played for local clubs Archipel and Blauw Zwart in the Dutch amateur leagues in the 1930s. He was forced to work in a factory in Berlin, Germany in 1942. The factory where he worked was bombed a year later, and Appel narrowly survived. During the war, Appel played for Hertha BSC and for an unofficial Dutch national team, made up of Dutch forced labourers. His refusal to give the Hitler salute before matches made the German authorities furious. The Royal Dutch Football Association suspended Appel after the liberation in 1945. He was, however, a member of the Netherlands national football team at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He left for France in 1949, and became an important player for Stade de Reims where he played alongside Raymond Kopa and Roger Marche. Domestically he won the Coupe de France in 1950 and the French national title in 1953. Thanks to the victory of the French championship, Stade de Reims were allowed to participate in the fifth edition of the Latin Cup, eventually resulting in the team's first ever major European trophy win, obtained after beating AC Milan 3–0 in the final, with Appel scoring the second goal. Appel scored 96 goals in 154 matches for Stade Reims. Appel and Theo Timmermans took the initiative for a charity match for the victims of the North Sea flood of 1953, between France and Dutch footballers playing abroad. The Dutch players won the match 2–1. The match was not an official…

Appel became a manager in 1960, and won the 1962–63 Eredivisie title as manager of PSV Eindhoven.