Robert Enke ‘tried to hide his depression’

Robert Enke, the celebrated German goalkeeper whose suicide on Tuesday night shocked the international football world, had struggled with depression for years, his wife said yesterday. Talking to journalists the day after her husband threw himself under a train, Teresa Enke revealed that he had gone to great lengths to keep his mental illness a secret because he was worried that it might destroy his career and cause the authorities to take away their adopted daughter Leila.
 
Speaking at a press conference at Enke's club, Hannover 96, Teresa Enke, dressed in black, told journalists about her efforts to help her 32-year-old husband beat his depression. "We thought we were capable of managing everything. We thought love would make it possible. But sometimes you just can't manage it," she said.
 
Teresa also spoke movingly about how she and her husband had dealt with the death of their first daughter, Lara. The two-year-old, who was born with a weak heart, died in 2006. The rail crossing where Enke died was less than 200m from her grave, it emerged yesterday.
 
"After Lara's death everything drew us closer together, we thought that we would achieve everything," she said, her voice shaking. "I tried to tell him that there is always a solution. I drove to training with him. I wanted to help him to get through it. He didn't want to accept help any more."
 
Football had been Enke's life, she added. "Football was everything... When he started to get better again he said it's so nice to be part of the team again. Training was his security. That he could drive to training every time was the most important thing for him."
 
Enke, who was tipped to start in goal for Germany at the World Cup in South Africa next year, left a suicide note. In the letter, which has not been made public, he apologised to his family and the medical staff treating him for deliberately misleading them that he was better.

The goalkeeper’s psychologist Dr Valentin Markser, who accompanied Teresa to the press conference, said Enke’s subterfuge had been necessary in order for him to carry out his suicide plan. "Despite daily treatment for months," said Markser, "we did not succeed in preventing his suicide."

Although the DFB, the German football association, has ruled out any connection between Enke's death and football, it is known that the player found it hard to deal with fans’ abuse. In his first game for the Turkish side Fenerbahçe in 2003, fans pelted Enke with mobile phones and beer bottles after he made a decisive error. Enke said he had been shocked by the anger and had "not deserved the hate they showed me".
 
The entire German football team is due to attend a memorial service at the Hanover Stadium on Sunday. ·