This is just one of the many heartbreaking moments in Ronald Reng’s book A Life Too Short which tells the tragic story of former German goalkeeper Robert Enke who, after a long battle with depression, finally succumbed to his illness in November 2009.
Reng’s morose but heart wrenching tale has been causing quite the stir here in England this week upon its UK release, striking a chord right across the footballing spectrum and it’s had me wondering why.
My copy of the book arrived at my door yesterday morning as I was reflecting on Carlos Tevez’s refusal to come off the bench for Manchester City in their UEFA Champions League game with Bayern Munich the night before.
As I started reading the book it occurred to me that the reason Enke’s tale has caused such a response is it shines a light on the ludicrousness of a multimillion-dollar football industry where loyalty is an anachronism and self-preservation a necessity. Even more importantly A Life Too Short highlights the human reality of those involved in the game and the extraordinary world they live in.
As Reng writes in the book’s opening chapter about the response he got following his friend’s suicide, “(Enke’s) goalkeeping rivals, who were supposed to wear the mask of invulnerability in interviews in accordance with the law of professional sport, suddenly started airing their doubts and anxieties.”
It made me wonder what kind of parallel football universe we, as fans, journalist, coaches and players, have created. That we can all be guilty of forgetting the humanity of our fellow football lover as emotions of a dramatic result or strong opinion overwhelm us.
Yesterday morning after I had started reading A Life Too Short, I was sitting in a café sipping on an underwhelming English coffee as I chatted on the phone with a football journalist friend and colleague. He was telling me how vicious the comments had become on his blogs and all I could respond with was a simple, “Yeah mate, I know the feeling.”
The thing is if I walked into any other workplace in the world and started abusing you or asking you to kill yourself (a response I’ve received in the past) I’d most likely be arrested if not beaten up for my trouble.
Yet it’s considered ok to hurl profanities at a player, coach or match official in the stands or leave flaming comments on a journalists work. Why? Because you’ve paid for your season ticket or $1.50 cover price? In my mind that’s a lame excuse and not a suitable justification.
While Robert Enke had become so adept at hiding his terribly painful illness that there was most likely very little anyone could have done to save him, that doesn’t mean we should continue confusing abuse for passion both on and off the terraces. That’s one of the lessons I’m taking from a life that was far too short.
rip Enke
Guest
Apparently it was the pressure of performing at an expected high level. So his note stated.
Costa Del Crime
Guest
Although I think Davidde has a fair point by saying that people (i.e. also journalists) suffer from all the rubbish written in internet comments, I share the opionion of the others that making that point in a blog about Robert Enke is rather unfortunate. Enke was prone to depression, which is a rather complex illness and can - definitely not in his case - hardly be explained by suffering some kind of abuse. It might get you down getting hate mail, but depression is something far deeper, absolutely demonical. Jugding from your blog (which includes some worthwile thoughts), I suggest, you should have read the Robert Enke book and not just the first chapter, before filing. I read it ten month ago (in German) and must say it is a brilliant book, precisely because it gives you such a vivid understanding what excatly it means to suffer from depression. Take care, Martin.
jamesb
Guest
its hard to tell what state of mind Robert Enke had when he went through his illness. I'm not sure if abuse by fans were the cause for Robert Enkes problems. If anything i certainly liked to buy the book to find out. Davidde IMO, for someone to be depressed, he/she feels as though theres no way out of their situation other than to commit suicide, which is sad. I'm a little disappointed that you drew a long bow with how a journo feels when they cop abuse from blogs, comments etc. and drawing a parallel with a sportsman getting abuse from fans. Look i don't know much about depression and how it leads to tragic circumstances. Sure we all have our dark days, but then you wake up the next and you feel slightly better. But for Enke and many others in his position, when he wakes up the next day, he probably feels the same, if not worse. I hope with Robert Enke we learn lessons from it, so that in the future, if we know someone who is in a similar state, we will try to help them out. I hope this article wasn't used to send a message out their that journos shouldn't get bagged or else some tragedy would occur. If anything the message should be finding solutions for people to overcome depression To me, IMO i always found depression to be a complex topic. Its hard to work out.
TomC
Guest
Davidde, I read the piece carefully a couple of times before I commented. I don't believe I've misrepresented what was in the article. I'll repeat what I said: your point would have had more impact if you hadn't drawn what looks like a pretty long bow between Enke's suicide and anonymous abuse sent to journalists through a culture of hyperbole. I don't even understand why they're in the same article. I haven't read A Life Too Short. Does it explicitly state that abuse by fans was a key reason for Enke's state of mind? Frankly, it looks self indulgent. It looks like you're raising this tragic incident in order to have a whinge about the rubbish a bunch of nutcases have sent you. I don't know if there is a 'culture of hyperbole and abuse'. The people who send you hate mail are a very small subset of football followers. They probably have their own issues they are dealing with. I have to agree with Fuss on the Jesse Fink point. If you are concerned about this issue, why do you defend someone who constantly used his blog to hurl abuse at people he didn't like? Not just Buckley and Lowy, but Muscat, Verbeek, Arnold and other football journalists.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Davidde I just don't understand why you had to even bring up the issues of abuse received by sports journalists via the internet. For heavens sake, what's the threat from an anonymous message? How about you go have a chat to people, who cop very real threats and acts of violence every time they enter their place of work? Talk to police, late night take-away vendors, cab drivers, nurses working late-night emergency ... even school teachers. Email criticism and abuse... give me a break! If journos don't want readers to provide comments, they should avoid publishing articles that allow feedback. And, in my opinion, when it comes to "the culture of hyperbole and abuse" in relation to professional footballers, I reckon it's time sports journalists looked in the mirror! It's the garbage written by sports journalists that would have the biggest impact on a professional sportsman. Heck how much hyperbole and thinly-veiled abuse - and often very personal abuse - has your mate, Jesse Fink, directed at Ben Buckley and Frank Lowy in the past 12 months?
Davidde Corran
Roar Guru
Fussball and TomC I'd appreciate it if you could point out to me where I "draw a parallel between the possible causes of his tragedy and e-messages received by sports journalists". If you were to read through the article again you should note that the book got me thinking about the state of football and that is what I was commenting on. A culture of hyperbole and abuse. Anonymous or not, abusive messages effect each journalist in different ways. For some it does have an impact while others can just brush it off. Either way it's inexcusable. Same goes for yelling abuse at players, coaches and referees in stadiums.
Michael
Guest
Well said.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Davidde - thanks for revisiting this story, which had a strong impact on me at the time and, it seems, it also impacted millions around the world. Your article was a poignant reminder that the life of a footballer is not just glitz, glamour and girls! I do agree with TomC - in my mind, you slightly cheapened the tragic story of Enke by trying to draw a parallel between the possible causes of his tragedy and e-messages received by sports journalists - from anonymous people - which should have ZERO impact on your self-esteem, self-worth and self-confidence.
TomC
Guest
It's certainly worthwhile reflecting on the lessons we can take from the sad case of Robert Enke, but I very much doubt the pressures on a professional athlete are analagous to those on sports journalists. I would suggest that this article would have more impact if it didn't try to draw links between the two.