Casillas on the verge of a century as the football world mourns the loss of Robert Enke

The world of football is today mourning the death of German international goalkeeper Robert Enke, who was hit by a train on Tuesday evening near his home at Neustadt am Rubenberge in Lower Saxony. A statement confirming the 32-year-old’s passing was announced by police just hours after the tragedy occurred.

Enke played for Germany eight times in his career, including five qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010. In addition to the Bundesliga, where he played for Hannover 96 and Borussia Monchengladbach, Enke also had spells abroad with Benfica, Barcelona, Fenerbache and Tenerife, among others.

Enke, who had been suffering from depression, had only recently recovered a mysterious bacterial infection and had been omitted from the squad for their upcoming friendlies against Chile and the Ivory Coast next Wednesday. The German Football Association (DFB) has announced that the friendly with Chile on Saturday has been called off following the incident.

At the Camp Nou, Barça held a minute’s silence in his memory on Tuesday night before their Copa del Rey match against third-tier Cultural Leonesa. Wearing black armbands, the players stood with heads bowed as classical music played in the background.

RIP Robert Enke.

Our own custodian, Iker Casillas, though is on the verge of earning is 100th cap for Spain, which he attributes to the performance of Real Madrid. He spoke to the press ahead of Spain’s friendly against Argentina.

On the 100th cap:

The first 99 matches flew by and I never thought I’d reach this milestone so quickly, but I am very happy. I earned it by the way Real Madrid plays. My two best moments were my debut and the day we won the Euro. I always dreamed about winning a title with the national team before retiring and I fulfilled it.

Spain-Argentina friendly:

Messi is Messi, and while Spain is emerging as a world power, Argentina already is one and is always an opponent to take into consideration.

King’s Cup:

I always think that the players are who are at fault and Real Madrid should have won the tie.

Everyone has a coaching instinct inside of them and everyone has an opinion, but it comes down to one person’s decision, and even if you don’t agree with it, you do have to respect it.

There are serious accidents in life, and the first leg of the tie was one of them. Yesterday we had another accident, but perhaps it wasn’t as serious. Although the team looked more enthused, that cannot be an excuse because no one thought Real Madrid would fall to Alcorcon.

The entire squad must assume responsibility, but these things can happen and at times they even help Steven Spielberg write movie scripts.

The president worked hard for this season and everyone can opine, but all that matters is that we work hard and look towards the future; not as far out as the final at the Bernabeu or the Barcelona match, but rather the Racing Santander match.

We all like to play at the Bernabeu and we all wanted to help out being that it was an important match, but all that mattered was making it through to the next round and it didn’t happen.

A day of mixed emotions indeed.

P.S: Cristiano Ronaldo was in Lisbon on Tuesday afternoon to be evaluated by the Portuguese national team’s medical staff, who concluded that the player is not fit to play the next two matches for Portugal.