Five years after Germany international Robert Enke’s suicide, his widow says attitudes toward depression have softened in his home country, but German Football Association (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach insists little has changed.
Enke, who was Germany’s first-choice goalkeeper at the time of his death, took his own life on Nov. 10, 2009, by throwing himself under a commuter train after a six-year battle with depression.
He was just 32 and it later emerged that he had kept his illness secret, partly through fear of losing custody of the daughter he had adopted with his wife.
Following the tragedy, the Robert Enke Foundation was established by his former club Hannover 96, the DFB and the Bundesliga. Part of its work involves offering advice and help to those suffering from mental illness, especially sportsmen and women.
An exhibition titled “Robert Enke — our friend and goalkeeper” opened on Friday in Hannover, displaying memorabilia from a playing career that included stints at Borussia Moenchengladbach, SL Benfica, Barcelona and Fenerbahce.
His widow, Teresa Enke, said the foundation’s work is making a difference and public opinions toward psychological illness has changed since her husband’s suicide.
“Many things have been achieved [by the foundation], such as an advice service. This is a huge step forward. Robert and I were often alone and out on a limb,” she said. “Depression is something which is spoken about far more openly now and those affected are more able to ask for and receive help and treatment.”
One example is Hannover reserve goalkeeper Markus Miller, who took two months away from playing in 2011 to be treated for depression and was given full support by Enke’s former club.
Yet the 32-year-old said he has experienced little sympathy toward his illness.
“Anyone who falls down to the left or right isn’t really currently a concern in our society,” Miller said in an interview with broadcaster ARD.
Just five days after the Mannschaft won the FIFA World Cup in Brazil this year, goalkeeper Andreas Biermann, who played for second-division sides Union Berlin and St Pauli, committed suicide at the age of 34. Biermann revealed he was suffering from depression in November 2009, in the immediate wake of Enke’s suicide, but later said he regretted going public.
“The fears I had, before I went public with my illness, were confirmed,” he told magazine Stern two years before his death. “I wouldn’t recommend any professional footballer suffering from depression to go public with their illness.”
Niersbach said little has changed in terms of attitudes on the terraces of Germany’s top flight, but it is something the DFB are working on.
“It hasn’t seriously changed anything, we keep coming back to the point where we are still some way from a healthy sporting rivalry,” Niersbach told ARD.
“We live through these things and set a code of conduct, but ultimately there are 80,000 spectators in the stadium and everyone follows their own interpretation of these standards,” he said. “This has always been the case and will always remain so, but fairness must not be a concept just gathering dust in our society and in sport. It’s something we are committed to at the head of the association.”
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