Robert Encke: the life and death of a football player

Six years ago, Robert Enke brought the scores back to life after a long depression. The death of the goalkeeper of the German national team is still a lesson for all people who are in the football field. In this article you will be presented with his brief biography.

Childhood

Robert Encke was born in Jena (Germany) in 1977. Love for the sport was instilled in the boy from the very childhood. Father Dirk was engaged in athletics (now he is a psychotherapist), and Giselle's mother was a handball player.

Roberta was identified in the football section "Carl Zeiss." At first, the boy played in the attack, but soon after long arms and high growth he was put on the gate. In Germany, he passed a lot of children, and then junior teams. Trainers considered Enke a promising, calm and reliable goalkeeper. The young man repeatedly became the best sportsman of the month.

Unsuccessful debut

In 1996, Robert Encke, whose biography is known to all football fans, was invited to Borussia. For a couple of years he managed to oust Uwe Kamps from the main line-up. But the debut season of the athlete was unsuccessful. In 32 games Robert missed 71 goals. The indignation of the fans was so great that Enke was forced to move to Portugal and play for Benfica.

First success

The Portuguese stage career goalkeeper can be called successful. Robert Encke himself spent 3 seasons in Benfica, having played 77 games. In the season 1999-2000, his team won bronze medals in the championship. But, unfortunately, the club started financial problems, so the goalkeeper had to become a free agent.

The contract with "Barcelona"

In 2002, Robert Encke signed a contract with Barcelona. But for the season the goalkeeper had only four games, being only the third reserve goalkeeper of the team. The club management decided to send Robert to the Turkish club Fenerbahce. There Enke played only one game, conceding three goals. The goalkeeper had to flee the field, because the fans threw various objects into it. After that, he was again sent to the Spanish "Tenerife". There the goalkeeper played nine matches.

Return to the Bundesliga

In 2004, Robert Enke, whose cause of death will be listed below, returned to the Bundesliga and became the goalkeeper of "Hanover". And three years later the coach of the German national team Joachim Loew invited him to his team. In the qualifying matches of the 2010 World Cup, Encke was the main goalkeeper.

Suicide

November 10, 2009 Robert Enke rushed under the express, the speed of which was 160 km / h. He did it as desperately as he jumped thousands of times at the feet of the opponent's scorers. Robert was a representative of the old goalkeeper's school. And there it was customary to think about yourself in the last place. That's exactly what Robert Enke always did. The death note of the goalkeeper was voiced by the attending physician of the German national team. Valentin Markser told the press that the goalkeeper apologized to the doctors and family for misleading them about his own psychological state. Robert deliberately imitated the improvement so that no one guessed his suicidal plans.

Causes of suicide

The widow of the athlete Teresa and Markser told the press about Enke's many years of depression. For the first time Robert turned to a doctor in 2003, when he lost the goalkeeper's place in Barcelona. And in the last months of his life, the sportsman feared that if they learned about his illness, they would deprive him of the right to raise a foster daughter Leila.

Previously, the goalkeeper was already experiencing the loss of his own child. Football fans know that Robert Encke and his daughter Lara often went on the field after the match played. Photos of the goalkeeper with the baby in his arms were often published in sports publications. In 2006, Lara died of heart disease. As we now know, Robert very hard experienced this moment.

The fear of losing the second child aggravated the goalkeeper's depression. Her peak caught the athlete in Barcelona. Only the spouse and the agent knew about the true condition of Robert. A few months before the suicide the goalkeeper was having a great time with his wife in Portugal and after the end of his career he wanted to move to Lisbon. But with the beginning of the season, Robert had doubts and daily fear of losing his place in the national team and in the club.

Last days

All the media were convinced that Enke was injured, and only family and close friends knew about his real illness. And most of the people around him thought that Robert gets a lot of money and leads a carefree life of celebrity. This made the goalkeeper keep the truth about his condition in secret. He did not even resort to professional help, fearing the leakage of information to the press. As a result, a few days before his death, when the goalkeeper was pretending to be a happy man, loved ones decided that everything bad was over. No one knew the true intentions of Robert. He looked absolutely normal. But, unfortunately, not because he came out of depression. He found a way to eliminate the disease that devours him from the inside. Death was the only way that Robert Enke saw. The funeral of the goalkeeper was visited by 40,000 people, which made them the most ambitious in the history of German sport.

Heritage

After this tragedy, the German Football Federation paid close attention to the problem of depression among players. The Enke Widow organized a fund to help people suffering from mental exhaustion.

For Robert, football was the meaning of life, and the fear of dishonoring before the public took life from the athlete. Ronald Reng wrote a book about the goalkeeper. In it, the author told that Robert really wanted to tell the world about the daily problems of the athlete and about what is happening in his head things. But Enke did not live to see these days. Nevertheless, the goalkeeper left an important legacy for everyone. By his death, he brought to the surface a serious problem that almost no one had ever seriously taken.