1/2 Martijn Schwillens and Bob Thomassen with the biography of Bram Appel.
It is 60 years ago that PSV won the national championship for the first time. Trainer Bram Appel helped the team from Eindhoven to their first major prize. The former international was also responsible for the breakthrough of ‘Mister PSV’ Willy van der Kuijlen. Martijn Schwillens and Bob Thomassen from Cuijk wrote the biography ‘Het Kanon’ about Appel, who achieved success after success as both a footballer and a trainer. “There is no one in football with such a special life story.”
Martijn Schwillens is an avid groundhopper in his spare time and therefore visits as many football stadiums as possible. He goes in search of the hidden gems both at home and abroad. You don’t make him happy with hypermodern stadiums, but with old, dilapidated shelters with graffiti on the wall and the smell of urine.
Earlier this year, De Cuijkenaar published a book about disappeared stadiums, such as that of NAC Breda on Beatrixstraat. 19 years ago he wrote about disappeared Dutch professional clubs. Even then his curiosity about Bram Appel arose. That name does not ring a bell with everyone, but in terms of statistics, ‘Het Kanon’ (Appel’s nickname) was not inferior to famous teammates such as Abe Lenstra and Faas Wilkes.
“Appel has an impressive resume with more than 300 official goals, multiple championships and awards in different countries. How the hell was it possible that no one had ever written a book about him?” Martijn asked his fellow townsman Bob Thomassen to look together for as much information as possible about Appel.
That meant many visits at home and abroad to former teammates, but also days of research in archives. Bob: “A huge job, because there was almost nothing about him online. After his job as an interim trainer of FC Eindhoven in 1970, he opted for oblivion. But the more we delved into history, the more fascinating his life became .”
“He was against Nazism.”
His career sounds like a boy’s book, but it wasn’t. For example, Appel was deported to Berlin in 1942 and played for the Dutch forced labor team. His period in Germany ensured that he was suspended by the KNVB after his return. “Appel was against Nazism and even refused to give the Hitler salute at Hertha BSC.”
All information is bundled in the biography ‘Het Kanon’, the first copy of which was handed over to Appel’s daughter on 27 May. “We knew from old photos that he had a daughter, but we couldn’t find a name anywhere. A call on social media yielded the golden tip. She responded positively to our idea to write a biography and turned out to be a big suitcase with all unique photo material.”
The biographers are now calling for the rehabilitation of Appel, who died in 1997. On June 7, they will visit KNVB chairman Just Spee. “Just like Appel, Faas Wilkes missed out on many international matches because he went to play football abroad. After his death, he was rightly rehabilitated by the KNVB, but they should also do this for Bram Appel. Like Wilkes, he missed many international matches, but a big difference is that he was a forced laborer for years.”