Stories of goalkeepers...both fictional and true

Photos (Top to Bottom): "The Penalty King" (Football, London, October 1977) [Click on photo to get readable version.]

Goalkeepers have really been in the news this week.

First, Robert Enke, who had been widely tipped to be Germany’s number 1 for the coming World Cup, apparently committed suicide.

His car was hit by a train at a level crossing.

Enke, 32, was captain and keeper for Bundeslinga side Hannover 96.

He had never quite recovered emotionally from the death of his 2-year-old daughter two years ago.

He had spoken of how he and his wife had kept vigil at their daughter’s bedside at the hospital and how they had eaten Christmas dinner of salmon and potato at the hospital cafeteria.

Enke was a modest individual who never big-noted himself. He had recently recovered from injury but had been depressed. It has been said that he had a fear of failure.

He and his wife, Teresa, lived on a farm and were staunch animal rights campaigners.

Although he drove a Mercedes, Enke travelled by rail to training and mixed freely with thousands of commuters each day.

How different this was to all those modern-day superstars who roll up to training in their expensive limousines and who flaunt their wealth.

Enke started his career with Karl Zeiss Jena and then moved to Barcelona, where he was rarely given a chance but was the eternal understudy to other keepers.

Barcelona off-loaded him to Turkish club Fenerbache, where he played just one game and suffered the ire of fans because it ended in defeat.

He then moved to Tenerife in Spain before transferring to Hannover 96 where he established himself as number one choice and captain.

His death came just as it seemed he had reached his peak in form.

And then came the news of former Chelsea and now Tottenham keeper Carlo Cudicini, who was badly injured in a motorcycle accident in London.

Cudicini, who was the understudy to Petr Cech at Chelsea before moving to Spurs, collided with a car on his BMW motorcycle and broke both wrists and suffered pelvic damage.

The police report describes his injuries as possibly ‘life changing’. That’s newspeak if ever I’ve heard it.

No-one at Tottenham knew Cudicini even owned a motorbike, let alone rode one, so it will be interesting to see what the insurance situation is as far as his playing career is concerned.

New Zealand have their keeper, Mark Paston, to thank for getting to the World Cup after he saved a second-half penalty against Bahrein in Wellington yesterday.

A 45^th-minute header by Rory Fallon gave New Zealand a 1-0 win and a ticket to South Africa.

It will be New Zealand’s second appearance at the World Cup. They were involved in Spain in 1982,w here they were in the same group as Brazil and Scotland.

It’s wonderful for our region of the world that both the Socceroos and the All Whites will at last compete in a World Cup together.

Mark Schwarzer was also in excellent form for the Socceroos, who beat Oman 2-1 away with ten men to go to the top of their group in the Asian Cup qualifiers.

Luke Wilkshire and Brett Emerton got the goals, while Rhys Williams conceded a penalty and was sent off after just 17 minutes.

Since we are on the theme of goalkeepers, I’d like to share with you a short story I had published in the English magazine “Football” back in 1977.

This is only a work of fiction. Real life is often much stranger. The story, as published, is reproduced above.