Germany’s likely World Cup goalkeeper Robert Enke killed by a train

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Germany’s World Cup plans suffered a devastating blow today when Robert Enke, the starting goalkeeper on the national team, was struck and killed by a train at Neustadt am Rubenberge in what police said appeared to be a suicide.

Enke, 32, played for Hannover 96 in the German Bundesliga and had made eight appearances for the national team, which has qualified for next year’s tournament in South Africa. News of Enke’s death was announced by Martin Kind, Hannover’s president, and a subsequent police statement said that ‘first indications are that it was a suicide.’

Kind said Enke had appeared ‘unstable’ recently. He and his wife lost their 2-year-old daughter to a heart ailment in 2006.

Even though he had not been selected to play for Germany in matches against the Ivory Coast on Saturday and Chile on Nov. 18, Enke was considered the leading candidate to start at the World Cup, according to national team Coach Joachim Loew.

-- Grahame L. Jones