fullname years death_date clubs caps birth_place goals nationalteam position nationalcaps manageryears nationalyears birth_date managerclubs image article_title name nationalgoals
abraham leonardus appel 4 1954 1954 & ndash ; 1955 1955 & ndash ; & 1960 ndash ; 1949 1949 & ndash ; 31 october 1997 hertha '54 bsc sittard stade de reims lausanne sports fortuna 154 rotterdam , netherlands 96 netherlands striker , manager 12 1954 1960 1960 & ndash ; 1962 1962 & ndash ; & 1967 1967 & ndash ; 1968 1968 & ndash ; ndash 1970 ; 1955 1955 & ndash ; 1948 & ndash ; 1957 30 november 1921 fc '54 beringen lausanne-sport fortuna '54 fc volendam psv eindhoven fortuna bram appel 1963.jpg bram appel
 bram appel 10
bram appel

abraham -lrb- `` bram '' -rrb- leonardus appel -lrb- rotterdam , 30 november 1921 - geleen , 31 october 1997 -rrb- was a dutch football player .
appel played for ado den haag in the dutch league 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 reims .
he won the coupe de france in 1950 and the french national title in 1953 .
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 international , because the dutch players had been suspended from the dutch national team .
the royal dutch football association did not allow football players to be professionals .
this match , however , paved the way for the acceptance of professional football in the netherlands .
two years later , the ban on professionalism was lifted appel returned to the netherlands in 1954 , having been signed by fortuna '54 as one of the first professional football players in the dutch league .
he became a manager in 1960 , and won the 1962/63 eredivisie title as manager of psv eindhoven .
he left the world of football after the title , and became a real estate agent .
he lived a reclusive life at the end , and he died on 31 october 1997 , one-month before his 76th birthday .
