Purrel Fränkel

Purrel Fränkel
Personal information
Full name	Purrel Fränkel
Date of birth	8 October 1976 (age 48)
Place of birth	Paramaribo, Suriname
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Left back
Youth career
	Osdorp
	Amstelland
	Telstar
Senior career*
Years	Team
1994–1998	Telstar
1998–2002	De Graafschap
2002–2007	Vitesse
2007–2012	De Graafschap
2012–2019	DUNO
Total
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Purrel Fränkel (born 8 October 1976) is a Dutch former professional footballer. He played 474 matches in professional football for Telstar, De Graafschap and Vitesse.

Club career

Fränkel is a defender who was born in Paramaribo and made his debut in professional football, being part of the Telstar squad in the 1994–95 season. He also played for De Graafschap before joining Vitesse.

In 2003, he scored an own goal against FC Twente when the match was just 19 seconds old. This was an all-time record in the Eredivisie, but it was broken three years later by Arnold Kruiswijk of FC Groningen, who, in a match against Heracles Almelo, managed to pass his own goalkeeper after 9 seconds.

In March 2009 he was suspended for a month by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) after testing positive on smoking cannabis.^[1]

After the relegation of De Graafschap in 2012, Fränkel decided he did not want to play in the Eerste Divisie any more and retired from professional football. He since played several years at amateur level for VV DUNO, and also worked as assistant coach during the 2018–19 season.^[2] During his time at DUNO, he helped lead the club from the ninth-tier Vierde Klasse to the fifth-tier Hoofdklasse.^[3]