“Dear Robert…” German players pen letter to Enke

GELSENKIRCHEN - Germany’s players have penned a letter of farewell to goalkeeper Robert Enke who took his own life last week.

In their letter, beginning “Dear Robert” and published Wednesday ahead of the friendly international against Ivory Coast, the players described their shock and sorrow at news of the goalkeeper’s death.

“We sat together for a long time and thought of you. We were silent together, cried together and have together sought answers but only kept on finding questions, agonizing questions,” the players wrote in the letter released by the German football federation DFB.

“Why couldn’t we help you? Why couldn’t you, didn’t you want to tell us of your problems? Why isn’t it possible in our competitive sport, in our competitive society to be able to talk openly about fears and illness?”

The players will wear black armbands while a minute’s silence will be held before the evening’s game in Gelsenkirchen. Enke’s jersey will be placed on the German players’ bench during the match.

Enke, 32, who had recently been Germany’s first-choice keeper, had been suffering from depression for many years.

Germany cancelled a friendly against Chile last Saturday following the keeper’s death but decided to go ahead with the game against Ivory Coast after attending a memorial service in Hanover on Sunday.

“It is a painful thought for all of us that you must have felt lonely and alone even though you were with us,” the players wrote.

“That you so often must have felt you could be losing much more than a game of football. That for you there was much more at stake than for any of us.”

The players said they would be doing everything to ensure that there is “no place in football” for prejudice or stigmatization.

“We will miss you. On the way to the stadium, in the changing rooms, in the penalty area. We will miss you because you were an extraordinary goalkeeper. But much more, because you were a

remarkable person.

“We are playing today for Germany, we are playing for the fans. But most of all we are playing for you. For a good friend whose death has brought us all closer together.

“We are a team. And you will always be a part of this team.”

The DFB is meanwhile considering organizing a match in tribute to Enke and may set up a foundation in his name to help research into depression.

The DFB is looking at the possibility of a match between the German national team and Enke’s club side, Hanover 96, if a suitable date can be found, federation president Theo Zwanziger said.

Zwanziger told Wednesday’s Sport Bild a foundation bearing Enke’s name could work together with existing institutions in the fields of therapy and research into depression.

One of the foundation’s aims would be to increase public awareness about depression. However any foundation would have to be subject to the agreement of Enke’s family, Zwanziger said.