After Speed's death, biography of tragic goalkeeper wins prize

A DAY after the football world was left stunned by the death of Wales manager Gary Speed, there was a poignant twist of fate when the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize was won by Ronald Reng's account of the life of German goalkeeper Robert Enke, who committed suicide in 2009.
 
The biography of the former Benfica, Barcelona, Hannover and Germany goalkeeper details his battle with depression that ended on train tracks near Hanover two years ago.
 
Presenting the prize to Reng, broadcaster John Inverdale spoke of "a tragic symmetry" and in The Daily Telegraph Simon Briggs explained that it "lay in the fact that Enke - like the newly departed Gary Speed - took his own life at a time when people outside his intimate circle thought he was doing fine".
 
Enke had battled depression for much of his career and was secretly using anti-depressants through the last months of his life. Accepting the award, Reng said: "I hope it will tell people what a nice person he was, and what a terrible illness depression is.”
 
In The Guardian, Rob Bagchi said previous winners of the award, cricketer Marcus Trescothick and rugby player Brian Moore, had touched on similar topics. Reng's book completes "a trilogy of required reading" says Bagchi, not least for those who have been "flippant and unsympathetic to the issue of mental health among well‑rewarded professionals".
 
The Daily Express reports that since the death of Speed, five professional footballers have contacted Tony Adams's Sporting Chance Clinic seeking help.

Yet Speed’s death continues to be a mystery, with friends and family insisting he did not suffer depression before he took his own life on Sunday. His agent and friend Hayden Evans told The Sun that Speed had not rowed with his wife, Louise, and was not depressed. ·