Football faithful pay respects to Enke

GERMANY’S football stars, including Michael Ballack and Jurgen Klinsmann, joined tens of thousands of mourning fans in Hanover on Sunday to pay their last respects to tragic goalkeeper Robert Enke.

The 32-year-old, who had been set to travel with the Germany squad to next June’s 2010 World Cup in South Africa, flung himself under a commuter train at a small town near Hanover on Tuesday evening suffering from depression.

An emotional memorial service was held at Hanover 96’s stadium, where Enke should have been in goal for the next home game against Bayern Munich.

Instead, his coffin lay in the centre-circle as many of the 40,000 fans wept openly on the terraces while others proudly held aloft their club scarves.

The tragedy has thrown football-mad Germany into mourning and highlighted the immense amount of pressure the game’s stars are expected to shoulder.

Since his death, it has emerged Enke had been treated for depression since 2003 and German Football Federation (DFB) president Theo Zwanziger appealed to fans to show more understanding of the pressures their heroes face on a daily basis.

“Football must not be everything in life,” said Zwanziger. “A little more humanity, a little more courage in your convictions, a little bit more understanding of people’s dignity: this is what I wish from you [the fans].”

Germany’s planned friendly against Chile on Saturday was called off as a mark of respect and the national squad joined coach Joachim Loew, with his predecessor, Klinsmann, to say goodbye.

Enke leaves behind his wife Teresa, 33, and eight-month-old daughter, Leila, whom the couple adopted in May after their two-year-old daughter, Lara, died from a heart infection.

Enke was buried next to his daughter in a private ceremony for the family.