Psychological care in the Bundesliga: "The clubs do not fulfill their duty of care"

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Ten years after the suicide of national goalkeeper Robert Enke, the players' union VdV still considers the sports psychological care in German professional football to be insufficient. The association of contract football players refers to a separate survey of players from the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga and the 3rd league.

According to VdV, the majority of clubs offer the professionals no sports psychological care. This assessment is also supported by a poll conducted by the ARD among the 56 clubs of the three professional leagues: only seven clubs reported that they had employed psychologists for their professional teams.

These are: The Bundesliga RB Leipzig, 1899 Hoffenheim, Bayer Leverkusen, Fortuna Dusseldorf and Mainz 05, the 1st FC Nuremberg from the 2nd Bundesliga and third division Eintracht Braunschweig.

Tenth anniversary of the death of national goalkeeper Robert Enke

"The clubs thus do not comply with their duty of care and do not recognize the added value of a professional sports psychological care," said VdV CEO UIf Baranowsky the ARD. "Because if a player is mentally healthy and sports psychologically trained, he can also get better benefits."

Robert Enke had committed suicide on November 10, 2009, at the age of 32. He suffered from depression. His widow Teresa Enke heads the Robert Enke Foundation, founded in 2010, which seeks to clarify and de-tabulate the disease.