FSV Mainz 05has been awarded the Robert Enke Foundation’s Mental Health in Junior Performance Sport Promotion Prize.
“Just the fact that we are sitting here talking about mental health is a big step forward,” said Teresa Enke, widow of former national goalkeeper Robert, who took his own life on 10 November 2009.
She, the foundation’s chairwoman, presented this year’s Robert Enke Foundation Award for Mental Health in Youth Sports in Wolfsburg to the Bundesliga team FSV Mainz 05 – for its project “Psychosocial Injury Management”. Second place went to the Rhein Neckar Olympic Base, third to Rot-Weiss Essen.
The DFB Director Oliver Bierhoff, who was also present, recalled 10 November 2009 as a “very decisive day”; Enke emphasised that “it will always be the case that individual players will be beaten up” – but that the Foundation can offer help and support.