For three years, the distinguished German writer Ronnie Reng had been telling me to interview his friend Robert Enke who had just established himself as Germany’s No1 goalkeeper.

When United played Wolfsburg in December 2009, I had a reason to go to Germany. Enke played at nearby Hannover 96 and an interview was fixed.

Two weeks before, Reng called Enke to confirm the times for the interview with ‘the English journalist’.

Enke was abrupt on the phone, agitated.

Three hours later he took his life by jumping in front of a train. He was 31.

Enke had been suffering from clinical depression for years. What happened in his football career made it worse. Having captained Benfica at 23, he turned down offers from Manchester United and Roma to join Barcelona.

Camp Nou didn’t work out well and when Barca sent him to Istanbul two years later, he refused to play for Fenerbahce.

Enke told Reng: “I just felt totally out of place in Turkey with the exaggerated passion of the fans and the club. I felt absolutely lonely and deeply sad.”

Instead, he chose to be unemployed. After 18 months out of work, he was only offered a job in Spain’s Second Division, at Tenerife. That’s the way many potential talents
disappear – into mediocrity.

But in this no man’s land, Enke’s career restarted instead. He moved to Hannover and became Germany’s goalkeeper, ousting Jens Lehmann.

All seemed positive in his football career. The World Cup was less than a year away, but his personal life was troubled.

His daughter Lara was born with a cardiac defect and spent her first six months in intensive care. She survived three life-threatening operations. Then, just after her second birthday, she died after what should have been a routine operation.

The story of Enke’s suicide made headlines around the world. The Times dedicated half of its front page to it. In China, state television included it in the main news.

Some 50,000 people attended his funeral, which was broadcast live, in Hannover’s stadium.

Reng then spent a year writing about Enke, whose wife Teresa allowed access to the diaries the goalkeeper had written, in all their detailed and heartbreaking entirety.

The book was an international bestseller and sold 200,000 copies in Germany, more than any other sports book. It has just been published in English.

Reng said: “Professional football makes a lot of people unhappy. Every team has a squad with 20-odd players, but only 11 can be on the pitch. That leaves more players on the bench or in the stands being bitter about why they are not in the team.

“Some feel that they have let themselves down, which eats away at some players. Not all of them handle it well.

“Add to this the teams who lose and the players who are injured. Or the players who are unemployed and don’t have a club.

“And then add the criticism thrown at every player because we dehumanise footballers and treat them as cartoon characters where we can throw anything at them. You can understand that the happy moments in football will be few compared to the sad moments.”

“Being sad doesn’t necessarily make you clinically depressed,” added Reng.

“Robert Enke had an illness. He was depression-prone and that was a different level to the feeling of being insecure or unwanted which most footballers feel.”

Reng feels that the public are waking up to depression in football.

“After Enke, Germans are realising that no matter how much you pay a person, they will still be vulnerable to insecurity and the fear of failure.”

English footballers will tell you privately that depression is a far bigger issue than is currently recognised.

There are few suicides, but many suffer in silence, afraid even to seek counselling. Instead, many seek solace in alcohol. Maybe by reading about a German who took his life, more will understand.

A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke, by Ronald Reng (Yellow Jersey, £16.99)

What do you think? Have your say.

Tweet