Robert Enke is dead (24.08.1977 - 10.11.2009)

All Benfica nation will never forget you. After Preud-homme you were the best keeper I've ever seen playing at Estádio da Luz. I hope you found some peace.
Respect to his family in this hard moment.

Ruhe in Frieden
Descansa em Paz
Rest in Peace
 
THIS IS JUST NOT TRUE!
He was a very sympatic, modestely and quiet person.
I still can't believe he is dead!
He is the best Goalkeeper Germany had and one of the best in the world this year.

R.I.P.
 
It's unbelievable. Here in Germany we all are completely shocked. It is beyond believe for all of us. Our Nationalteam has canceled the friendly game against Chile on saturday. Teammanager Oliver Bierhoff was even crying live on TV at the press conference.

Robert Enkes wife Teresa told the press that he has have mental problems (Depression, don't now if that is the right word in english) for years now (starting 2003). He tried to hide it over the years, because he was scared he could loose it all. And he was scared they could take away his adopted baby, because of his illness.

It's terrible, unbelievable sad. He became such a brilliant, brilliant goalie over the years, he was such a nice guy. Always humble and polite.

I'm shocked and i'm sorrowful. I can't even think about his wife and little daughter. We are all shocked here and we all feel like we were standing left in the rain. No one will ever understand this. It's one of the saddest days in the history of german football. I don't remember seeing so much friends of mine fighting with tears. It's terrible sad.
 
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I really feel for his wife at this time. It must be unimaginably difficult to deal with the loss of a child and then husband within such a short space of time.

Obviously the loss of a child must be devastating, but I find it hard to imagine how someone at the top of his profession and so successful, with a loving family and a bright future ahead of him could be so severely afflicted by depression, and that this was the only way out in his mind. Just shows how serious an illness depression is.

R.I.P.
 
It's an immense shock and a very sad day for football. Enke was a great footballer and a top class person. In an era when lots of "top" footballers are poor role models, Enke was the sort of player who was a superb role model.

Jamezinho said:
Obviously the loss of a child must be devastating, but I find it hard to imagine how someone at the top of his profession and so successful, with a loving family and a bright future ahead of him could be so severely afflicted by depression, and that this was the only way out in his mind. Just shows how serious an illness depression is.
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Sometimes people suffer such immense tragedy and sorrow that they simply don't want to go on. The loss of your own child at such a young age is massive tragedy and being in the public eye as a footballer makes it very hard to take a step back and try and recover - remember they can never do things in private, there will always be a newspaper or tv camera trying to find stuff out.

I remember hearing an interview with Zyrianov (Russian player) who suffered an equally tragic event (his wife jumped from a balcony commiting suicide and causing the death of their daughter who she was holding). He said things like it was a pain and loss that never went away, and in the first months during matches he'd scan the crowd thinking he saw them - even though he knew they had died his mind still wanted to see them. Even years later he would get upset, he said the hardest thing was when, in conversations with strangers (who didnt know about it), he would get asked how many children he had - he could never answer that question without immense sorrow.
 
Interesting little side info edmundo. I never knew this tragedy about Zyrianov but just looking at him, I could always see some sadness in his face, even with Russia doing so well for example, some hidden scar/issue, now it makes a lot more sense. Thanks for sharing.

As for Robert's depression since 2003 or so.. wow! Makes you wonder though if his mental state was that bad, how could he play so damn well!!?! :SHOCK:
Cuz for me he was the best German Keeper in the past few years and should have been #1. Very consistent too. Hard to imagine a guy with depression playing so great and being motivated, etc.!
 
PLF said:
As for Robert's depression since 2003 or so.. wow! Makes you wonder though if his mental state was that bad, how could he play so damn well!!?! :SHOCK:
Cuz for me he was the best German Keeper in the past few years and should have been #1. Very consistent too. Hard to imagine a guy with depression playing so great and being motivated, etc.!
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His Wife said that football was all and everything for Robert. She said he loves to train with his teammates and to have fun with the guys. Apparently during a game he was ably to blank out all of his problems or the problems wasn't simply there because he get distracted by the game.

I don't now. Yesterday evening in Hannover 35.000 people were on the streets as a part of a funeral march. It really moves us here. We are still stunned and shocked, because no one would ever imagine a suicide by a person like Enke. He was successful in his job, earned a lot of money, on his side was a beautiful loving wife, there was a little baby at home. Things seems very right and that is what make it so hard to believe.

And it moves us because we take part on the lost of his daughter 2006. We felt so sorry for him those days. And as i said before, he was a very humble, nice, polite guy. Not a kind of popstar like so many players today. He was just a nice guy who fulfilled his dreams, until tuesday. Then he committed suicide.
 
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Robbery said:
I don't now. Yesterday evening in Hannover 35.000 people were on the streets as a part of a funeral march. It really moves us here. We are still stunned and shocked, because no one would ever imagine a suicide by a person like Enke. He was successful in his job, earned a lot of money, on his side was a beautiful loving wife, there was a little baby at home. Things seems very right and that is what makes it so hard to believe.
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He had so many reasons to live. That's why it's so shocking.
 
pogoss said:
it's really hard to understand how someone who has money and healt can throw is life .
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Health and money are only important when you do not have them...when you have money enough and when you are healthy you tend to forget that they are important.

One might also argue that Enke wasn't healthy...depression is a disease and lots of people don't search help because they are ashamed about depression.
 
gerd said:
Health and money are only important when you do not have them...when you have money enough and when you are healthy you tend to forget that they are important.

One might also argue that Enke wasn't healthy...depression is a disease and lots of people don't search help because they are ashamed about depression.
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Clear. ;)
 
gerd said:
Health and money are only important when you do not have them....
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:)
my friend, you're one of the reasons i'm glad i joined this community.

and you're also right about depression. we tend to use the word "depression" to describe an indefinite sensation of sadness. truth is depression is a pathological condition. one of the most frightening illness a man can experience.... and one of the most difficult to treat from a medical point of view.

i do have my personal view about suicide. sometimes a suicide can be just the easiest way out, for a weak who doesn't have the strenght to face the challenges that life puts on our path.
but when depression is involved, then suicide has nothing to do with cowardice... in those cases suicide is not the last resource of a weak man... it's the last attack of that damn bastard illness that depression is.
and i believe that having a pubblic "succesful" image in theese cases can make things even worse, as u can't ask for help and u can't let people know your pain.
i really feel about this guy. riposi in pace :(
jamezihno said:
He had so many reasons to live. That's why it's so shocking.
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the thing is life needs no reasons (other than life itself). and death knows no logic.
so there's no way to "justify" (to find a cause, a purpose or a reason for) life, neither to explain or understand death (not that it would really matter).
besides, even if life could possibly be justified by any possible reason, having to deal with depression for 6 years would probably make those reasons vanish.
 
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Well said and yah I think in a case like this, being such a successful popular person, if anything does make it harder because you have to play a role and pretend even more. You're a sad miserable f**ck but you can't show weakness and everyone thinks you're this huge happy wonderful superstar/celebrity.

I feel really bad for Robert and his family and am still shocked! :(

@Robbery, thanks for the answer. Yah I read his wife said that too.

Still, I personally find it astonishing that he was THAT good :SHOCK: when supposedly that depressed! Kinda makes you wonder, would he have been an even better goalie (and let's face it there weren't many better than him) without the depression?! Or did it in fact kinda motivate him in this ONE area since rest of his life was crap and he loved the game and perhaps it helped him get away from it all.... or did it make little difference? I don't know... I'm just a little surprised by this and find it interesting. Because with someone like Deisler, we could see he's not that motivated, had some problems, injuries, depression.. but Enke played like a beast! He was unstoppable at times, impossible to score on! Consistent and very good! And then we find out this guy is a sad depressed man...
 
I also find it astonishing that he played that well.
My boss for the past two years suffered depression, his opinion about life, people and his job was so negative that he simply wasn't able to function anymore. At the end he just stepped down, because he felt that he couldn't function anymore.
 
It is astonishing. Even more after you read what Roberts father has to say. English is not my first language and it is a bit hard to translate. You can find the article from Roberts Father here - in german language

In this article his Father says that in Roberts most critical situation he was even scared getting a shoot on his goal. That he don't want to go to the training anymore and that he could not imagine standing between the post.

It seems Roberts problems start way earlier than 2003.

His Father says in this article: In his youth as a very talented goalkeeper Robert often plays in higher age groups. That often leads Robert into some crisis because Robert was scared he would not be good enough to play with the older guys. He was full of self-doubts even at a very young age it seems.

It seems he was fighting against this illness for a long, long time. But in phased. One of his best friends (his Manager) told the press that Robert was completely healthy (even no medicine was necessary) for a long time after signing to Hannover96. In Hannover it seems he find his freedom for a couple of years. It all comes back and start suddenly 8-10 weeks ago his manager told us. It seems it maybe has something do to with his virus illness. He could not play and train for weeks and maybe he was thinking to much about the past, the lost of his daughter, about his fears and sorrows and about the future. Whatever it was it brings back the self-doubts it seem.
 
ClassicManiac said:
Sorry man, no offense. But conjecturing und speculating is exactly what we should not do. Sometimes we have to accept that something happened without exactly knowing why it happened.
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You are absolutely right. Sometimes we have to accept it and i do accept it. But that can not stop you/me from thinking about it. I think it's a normal and natural reaction. Of course i ask myself why did this happen? What else should i do, when thinking about it?

We will never get a satisfying answer to this question. I know that. But for me thinking about the reasons helps me to deal with it. Again, i think it's a natural reaction. I don't want to offence anyone with my thoughts.
 
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Sorry about being late to post in this thread... RIP Robert Enke.

I never actually saw him play live, but I only ever heard good things about him as a player and as a person and it's such a shame that he felt suicide was the only way out.

Although he had a great job, a lot of money and all the other luxury things we would associate with footballers, I defnitely wouldn't have wanted to be in his shoes - depression is a horrible, horrible condition...
 
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