Hamburg - Germany goalkeeper Robert Enke has died, the president of his Bundesliga club Hanover 96 Martin Kind announced on Tuesday. No reasons for the death of the 32-year-old have been given.
"It is a tragedy," Kind said.
Kind was returning from a meeting of the German football association (DFB) on Tuesday when he received the shocking phone call. "You expect many things, but not something like that.
"I do not know how and why it happened, but I do not think that it had anything to do with football," he said.
Enke, who had become Germany's number one goalkeeper after Jens Lehmann retired at the end of last year's Euro championships, had to miss Germany's last four internationals with a bacterial bowel infection, but had just returned to the game again and had played in Hanover's 2-2 draw against SV Hamburg on the weekend.
He had not been selected for Germany's two international matches against Chile and the Ivory Coast on November 14 and November 18, but Germany coach Joachim Loew had indicated that Enke still was favourite to be Germany's first choice goalkeeper at the World Cup finals in South Africa next year.
Enke played eight times for his country.
Enke's two-year-old daughter Lara died two years ago from a heart defect.
