There have been some previous accounts of depression in sports that struck a public chord. Marcus Trescothicks's Coming Back To Me which detailed the cricketer's struggle to cope overseas with both England and Somerset is a case in point. A Life Too Short articulates the problems even better, although the ultimate tragedy is that it was meant to be Robert Enke's autobiography.
Robert Enke's Battle with Depression at Barcelona
Ronald Reng is a journalist who met Robert Enke during the goalkeeper's ill-fated time with Barcelona in 2003. It was during this contract that Enke first experienced clinical depression as his methods, form and standing were questioned in the unforgiving limelight of the world's most glamorous club. His subsequent loan period in the seething morass of Turkey was hellish. A picture of him holding the Femerbahce flag on signing for the club depicts a man who was spiralling into a deep trough of depressive illness.
Robert Enke's Family Life as a Youngster
Even as a youngster when he refused to play for the under 18s, Enke was gripped by nerves and anxiety which constantly brought self-recrimination for the most lonely position on the football pitch. A picture is also drawn of a childhood where much internal strife was never aired publicly. "There was so much polite reticence in our family", says Gisele Enke, Robert's mother. His father Dirk is a sports psychotherapist who noticed that his son had a fear of making mistakes that went into overdrive: "He did not have faith in himself. He was trapped within his own ambition."
Enke's Generosity of Spirit and Happy Time at Benfica
Reng's account of a man whose "internal film ran incessantly" can be grim but is punctuated also by the moments where Enke felt at one. His nature was not confrontational like Oliver Kahn nor did he make the big save for the camera. Enke was an articulate sportsman who excelled in his application and kindness of spirit even in the midst of his rivals and ravaged mind. He was not born for the hardnosed eye of a Louis van Gaal. His years with Benfica in Lisbon, where he was feted, are all the more bittersweet as they preceded the first bout of depression.
Robert Enke's Death
Enke found relative peace again in the mid table Bundesliga team Hannover 96. However, his angst during the second spell of depression that preceded his death is truly tragic. Enke would lay in bed for hours, escape national training squads with fake injuries and brood with the mere mirage of a physical presence. His goalkeeping skills never waned and he was one of the favourites for Germany's World Cup squad when he committed suicide aged 32.
Being an international sportsman with depression has been almost a constant case of cover-up in the past. Watching Germany's Oliver Bierhoff cry after Robert Enke's death showed that beneath the veneer of perfectly formed bodies, sportsman can be stripped to the bone emotionally too. Reng struggled with what to include or leave out as a journalist but also as a friend. He has got the balance absolutely right in A Life Too Short.
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