Robert Enke Dead: German Goalkeeper Dies In Apparent Suicide

FRANKFURT — A goalkeeper expected to play for Germany at the World Cup died after being hit by a train in what police suspect is a suicide. He was 32.

Robert Enke played for the German club Hannover. Team president Martin Kind confirmed his death, and police later released a statement saying a man had been fatally struck by a train Tuesday night. The statement said the "first police indications are that it was a suicide."

"You expect many things, but not something like that," Kind said. "I do not know how and why it happened, but I do not think that it had anything to do with football."

The train crossing was not far from Enke's Hannover home. His car was found near the scene, unlocked, with his wallet on the seat. The two train drivers reported seeing a man on the tracks and applied the brakes while traveling at about 100 mph but could not stop in time, police said.

"We are speechless," German soccer federation president Theo Zwanziger said.

Hundreds of fans lit candles and placed flowers outside the Hannover stadium on Tuesday night.

Enke had been diagnosed with a bacterial stomach ailment and missed nine weeks before returning 11 days ago and playing two Bundesliga games.

He had not been selected for Germany's exhibition games against Chile on Saturday and Ivory Coast on Wednesday. But coach Joachim Loew had said Enke remained the leading candidate to be Germany's goalie at next year's World Cup in South Africa.

Enke and his wife lost their 2-year-old daughter to a heart ailment in 2006. The couple adopted a girl in May, who is now 8 months old.

"We are all shocked. We can't find the words," national team manager Oliver Bierhoff said from Bonn, where the national team assembled.

Enke played eight matches for Germany. After Jens Lehmann retired following the European Championship in 2008, Enke was promoted to No. 1 for Germany, but was set back by a broken hand.

Enke debuted for the national team in a 1-0 loss to Denmark in 2007. His last international game was a 2-0 win over Azerbaijan on Aug. 12.

He made 196 Bundesliga appearances and also played for Borussia Moenchengladbach after starting his career in East Germany at Jena. He also played for foreign clubs, among them CD Teneriffa, Fenerbahce, Barcelona and Benfica.

Comments

[Pem3]

The sad after effects on the families left behind are tragic. my sister has expressed thoughts of doing it because of problems she has been having. We sat down and talked on this and it is a hard thing, we are looking at the problem from the outside and they are looking at it from within.
I feel sad for his family.

[sweetest escape]

what an awful thing for his surviving wife to have to deal with, the loss of their child and now this.

[morganhoyle]

Not to mention he left his small adopted daughter fatherless... that's so incredibly sad!

[sweetest escape]

yeah i was trying to figure out how to eloquently put that in there as well and couldn't figure it out. so thanks because that's so true!!!! i bet his wife didn't sign up to be a single mom.

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

Wow! What a way to go!

[toxicbrainpoison]

Sounds treacherous. Someone wanted him out of the game...?

[allalone]

Tragic all the way around. In the rarified air of major sports and reaching your goals and then to have your dreams and career deferred, can cause one to succumb to the thoughts of not wanting to live any further. Depression is a dark and muddy pool and many do not understand that some drown in that pool. I hope his family finds some answers and peace in time over this man's death!

[gardengranny]

One of most upbeat of my friends recently committed suicide by shooting herself.

I have not been able to get the image [of her pulling the trigger] out of my mind.

So, mostly, I try not to think about it.

[PlanoBlue]

My husband committed suicide in the same way. Mostly I try not to think about it.

[Sing Out and Slap Iron]

Gotta work through it. It will take time, but you can't let it rule your life.

[HeevenSteven]

Sheesh... it's three years 'till the apocalypse, What was the hurry?

[InfinteShibumi]

Whenever I hear of an athlete's attempt at suicide, I can't help but wonder if steroids were involved. Just a thought.

[ManUnitdFan]

Steroids have never really been a big problem in soccer, because raw power isn't all that critical. It's the same reason you don't hear about steroids in basketball.

[jeanrenoir]

Reminds one of Peter Handke's absurdist novella, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick.

[Uosdwis]

Guess that cancels out the drunk Boston girl who almost got hit by the subway.

[HeevenSteven]

lol.. Group Karma, eh?

[Scooterfoot]

Witnessed a suicide in the Paris metro many years ago...I was sick and horrified. Police questioned everyone - what could we say? When they finally let us go - we went up to street level and there was a bridal party walking down the street. Irony?

[Kuuba]

Very said for everyone involved, just out of nowhere, with a pretty decent career and great family.

[sanileo]

what is there to live for coming to think of it. There is no life after death so life after here ends in any way we ascribe. that is our atheistic belief. Lets kill ourselves and end it all

[SuburbanMalcontent]

actually smarta$$, the atheistic view is that SINCE there is no life after death you should make sure you make the only life matter, and stop living as if you're going to spend some fantasy afterlife with an imaginary old man on a cloud.

[StonyStoner]

Exactly.

Stop using some god as a reason to be crappy to one another.

It is not OK to hate, even if you can rationalize the justification for same from some caveman shaman's explanation of divine intervention as the cause for unusual weather phenomenon like 100 year floods, comets and solar eclipses.

[roshni]

Fanned.

[the964kid]

Wow thats sad. I've spent a lot of time in Germany and one week when I was there 3 people killed themselves this way. Germans I know, at the time, said it's typical for their trains to be delayed due to suicides on the tracks. I would be interested in seeing a statistic on this. It's common enough for Germans to shrug it off to some degree. I am also curious if Americans kill themselves often by train and if so why it's not reported here as much.

[rachelva]

I believe there have been quite a few this year in the DC area (people jumping in front of Metro trains).

I always feel bad for the drivers when this happens. People who are suicidal aren't thinking clearly of course, but why involve someone else?

[valletta]

I live in Palo Alto (across from Stanford) and we've had 4 high school students throw themselves on the tracks this year alone.
Growing up as a child in the 70s, I had three, yes, three neighbors commit suicide, all of them returning from Vietnam.
My aunt committed suicide when I was 10.
And I've thought of it myself, at my lowest moments. I've always believed I would never do it, hurt my family, etc....but if my situation became _unbearable_, for me, who knows?
Empathy is worth the effort.

[jpvt]

Coincidentally, I related this recollection today on the "subway drunk woman falls" report:
Many years ago, as I awaited the northbound at Park St. Station (Boston) at commuter time, I looked up at a young woman standing on the platform directly across from me just as she jumped in front of the incoming train. She had it timed to the second. Not a good way to go...but quick and presumably painless.
Incidences of suicide seem to be increasing recently though I doubt Americans favor trains. German trains are faster and therefore more reliable.
What a depressing subject.

[guitargeorge1964]

Wow, you actually witnessed a suicide by train? How terrible for you.

When I was 18 a neighbor and a good friend committed suicide. 27 years later I still think about it a lot. Suicide hurts everyone left behind. It really makes you question a lot of things.

[Khirad]

Wow. How did you deal with that image in your head?

[Lusitani]

Very sad! Enke had finally risen to the level of play that many expected of him years ago.

This suicide will reignite the discussion around depression in world football (and sports at large). This topic has only recently begun being discussed in the European public, and mostly as a result of Deisler's retirement and, more importantly, book about his struggles with depression. Both in Europe and in North America, the majority of fans think that athletes have it easy in life because they are playing a sport for a living and earning tons of money in the process. I hope there will be efforts to understand depression in sports and to educate the public at large about such ailments.

One only has to look at the comments many Cincinnati Reds' fans hurled at Votto this past summer.

RIP Enke!