German footballer reveals suicide attempt on Facebook

By Frank Thomas Feb 16, 2012, 4:07 GMT

Berlin - The managing director of the Robert-Enke Foundation was among those to express surprise that former Bundesliga player Andreas Biermann chose his Facebook account to reveal that he made another attempt last week to take his life.

Team-mates and officials at lower-division club Spandau were shocked and many followers of Biermann, who played 10 second division games for St Pauli Hamburg between 2008 and 2010, wished him well via Facebook and his home page.

Biermann, 31, admitted to a suicide attempt a few days after Enke took his life in November 2009, and Enke's widow, Teresa, revealed that the Germany goalkeeper was suffering from depression.

Biermann said at the time that Enke's death and Teresa's description of the illness made him aware he was having the same problems.

He chose to go public to raise awareness among others suffering from depression and did it again on Monday night via Facebook.

'In order to prevent rumours and wrong reports, and to continue on my current public path, I want to tell you that I tried to take my life in the night from the ninth to the 10th of February and am in hospital for therapy since then,' Biermann posted.

'I still feel suicidal and I feel very bad ..There are other reasons apart from the known depression which I don't want explain out of respect for my family and in order to protect myself.'

The latest suicide attempt came less than 48 hours after Biermann effectively cried out for help via the social network.

'Things couldn't be worse right now in my private life and on the job. Does anyone have an idea for me? I have run out of ideas,' he said.

Biermann's choice to express himself via Facebook surprised Jan Bassler, head of the Robert-Enke Foundation which was set up after the player's death in order to help those suffering from depression.

'This surprised me, but everyone has to decide whether to go public in this way. We don't oppose Facebook, our foundation has more than 50,000 friends on Facebook,' Bassler told dpa.

Florian Holsboer, director of the Max-Planck-Institute for psychiatry in Munich, whose patients included former Germany midfielder Sebastian Deisler, said he welcomed Biermann's public approach but said that the player must also help himself.

'I would be happy if Mr Biermann could find a way to help himself with his openness and see a doctor when these suicidal thoughts occur. It can save lives to learn the right way of dealing with the illness,' said Holsboer.

Biermann, who also admitted to a gambling addiction in 2009, did not have his contract renewed by St Pauli in 2010 and told Swiss paper NZZ in an interview last year he had difficulties finding a new club because 'the feedback is always the same, they don't believe that I can deal with the pressure.'

He is now in the lower leagues at Spandau, whose chairman Ruediger Bienert said: 'His confession shocked the team. Andreas was a perfect sportsman and a role model for all players ... Be we could not look behind the scenes.'

Biermann has co-written his biography 'red card depression' in another attempt to help others, but in the NZZ interview from March 2011 remained sceptical whether Enke's death had really raised awareness among the football community and the federation DFB.

'Unfortunately nothing has happened and that makes me angry. Which athlete dares to make the illness public when he sees that he loses his job and doesn't get another chance?' he said.