Post by nosferatu on Nov 12, 2009 11:42:21 GMT -5
For those people who are not familiar with European soccer/sport, Robert Enke was a 32-year-old goalkeeper (around about the prime age for a goalkeeper), he was successful, the captain of Bundesliga team Hannover 96, and in line to be his country's first choice goalkeeper at the World Cup next summer.
His 2-year-old daughter died of a rare heart condition in 2006, and Enke struggled to cope.
He recently adopted an 8-month-old baby with his wife, yet this drove him deeper into depression as he believed if he admitted that he had a problem his daughter would be taken away from him. He also believed he would lose his reputation within the game of soccer, so kept his feelings a secret.
This week, after recovering from an injury and playing in Sunday's Hannover game, he stood in front of a high-speed train and waited to die.
It is a timely and desperately sad reminder of the pressure the public and the media exert on certain people. The sport world particularly is a notoriously competitive world where perceived weakness is seized upon with reckless abandon, with Football/Soccer probably being amongst the worst culprits. For however much we vilify professional sportsmen and women for their seemingly priviledged place in society, we also have a responsibilty.
It is just awful that it has taken the suicide of a top athlete to remind us.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/nov/11/robert-enke-hannover-96-germany
His 2-year-old daughter died of a rare heart condition in 2006, and Enke struggled to cope.
He recently adopted an 8-month-old baby with his wife, yet this drove him deeper into depression as he believed if he admitted that he had a problem his daughter would be taken away from him. He also believed he would lose his reputation within the game of soccer, so kept his feelings a secret.
This week, after recovering from an injury and playing in Sunday's Hannover game, he stood in front of a high-speed train and waited to die.
It is a timely and desperately sad reminder of the pressure the public and the media exert on certain people. The sport world particularly is a notoriously competitive world where perceived weakness is seized upon with reckless abandon, with Football/Soccer probably being amongst the worst culprits. For however much we vilify professional sportsmen and women for their seemingly priviledged place in society, we also have a responsibilty.
It is just awful that it has taken the suicide of a top athlete to remind us.
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/nov/11/robert-enke-hannover-96-germany
