Germany stars request Enke memorial game

Germany’s top players including Michael Ballack and Bastian Schweinsteiger have requested the German Football Federation (DFB) hold a memorial game for tragic goalkeeper Robert Enke.

The 32-year-old shot-stopper committed suicide last Tuesday by flinging himself under a commuter train passing through his home town of Neustadt am Ruebenberge, near Hanover, having suffered from depression since 2003.

The ex-national team goalkeeper, who won the last of his eight caps in August and helped Germany qualify for the 2010 World Cup, will be buried on Sunday after a memorial service at his home club.

Up to 100,000 people are expected at Hanover 96’s stadium for a memorial service which will be attended by the entire Germany squad before Enke’s coffin is carried out of the stadium by six Hanover team-mates.

With Germany playing a friendly against the Ivory Coast on Wednesday, the national team led by Ballack will attend a service for Enke on Sunday morning and then train in Duesseldorf in the afternoon to prepare for the game.

After consultation with the players, Germany coach Joachim Loew opted to bring the squad together to prepare in the aftermath of Enke’s tragic death.

Saturday’s planned friendly international between Germany and Chile, which had been due to be held in Cologne, was called off as a mark of respect, but the national team’s stars on Friday asked the DFB to consider holding a memorial match.

“The players have asked if there can be some sort of game next year to allow them to say goodbye to Robert,” the DFB’s secretary general Wolfgang Niersbach told German tabloid Bild.

Enke was set to travel with the Germany squad to South Africa for next June’s World Cup before his tragic death and one possibility is the full national side could play Enke’s club Hanover 96 in a warm-up match.

Meanwhile, DFB president Theo Zwanziger says more must be done in the sport to break the taboos around depression.

“After this tragedy, we must think about the issues in football and look at ways of breaking some of the existing taboos,” Zwanziger told German tabloid Bild.

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

The Germany goalkeeper will be buried on Sunday next to the grave of his daughter.