German Goalkeeper Robert Enke Commits Suicide

[Paul]

RIP Robert Enke.

[Rappy Veteran]

Robert Enke: funeral mourners told 'football is not everything'

At a memorial service at the Hannover 96 ground where Enke played his club football, 45,000 people, including Germany's players and coaching team, watched as Enke's coffin was placed in the middle of the pitch.

"Robert Enke will never come back to this stadium where he conquered our hearts," Hannover president Martin Kind said in a brief speech. "You were a number one in the real sense of the word. This is why our hearts are so heavy."

Enke took his own life at the age of 32, throwing himself in front of a train on Tuesday after battling depression for years. Fans in Germany and across the world were deeply touched by his death, which came three years after his own daughter had died, aged two, because of a heart problem.

His wife Teresa cried as she stood in front of a coffin that had been covered in white flowers, with a string quartet adding to the sombre mood on a crisp and sunny day. The pair had adopted a baby girl in May.

Thousands more stood in silence outside the stadium as candles and flowers covered the entrance to the club offices. As the coffin was driven away, the anthem 'You'll Never Walk Alone' was sung amid roaring applause.

Eke, who had been suffering from depression since 2003, made his breakthrough at Borussia M?nchengladbach and went on to captain Benfica in Portugal before having an unsuccessful spell at Barcelona.

He moved to Fenerbahce in Turkey before a transfer to Tenerife back in Spain helped him rebuild his career. He returned to the Bundesliga with Hanover and finally made his Germany debut in 2007.

He went on to win eight caps and was on his way to establishing himself as the number one German keeper after a decade in the shadows of Oliver Kahn and Jens Lehmann.

Injuries and illness conspired to stall his international career, however, and after missing recent World Cup qualifiers his starting position was again in doubt.

"Football is not everything," German Football Association chief Theo Zwanziger told the crowd on Sunday. "Football must not be everything."

Enke will be laid to rest next to his daughter's grave at a cemetery near Hanover.

[Dance.]

god this is terrible.

I dont feel sorry for him at all, he took the selfish route and jumped in front of a train, now the train driver has to live with the fact that he watched someone jump and then get cut up with his train and there was nothing he could do about it, spare a thought for the poor train driver who has to live with that image.

I do, he's been suffering from chronic depression since a young age & he's had some stomach infection that's been troubling him for the past 6 years. I feel very sorry for him. And yes, the train driver has to live with it, but he won't live with the guilt because he wasn't responsible for it.