Tributes are being paid as the world of football mourns Germany goalkeeper Robert Enke, who died after being hit by a train in an apparent suicide. Read the full story here

Professional footballers seem to have it all. They play a couple of matches a week, get paid vast sums of money for doing something they love, drive fast cars and marry beautiful women. In exchange for these things they are watched by millions of people every year, in stadiums and on T.V. as they strive to achieve success for club & country.

Its a short career, sometimes only 10 years and for most, usually far less at the highest level. The pressure is immense!

I have no idea what measures are in place within football to assess the mental state of players who are under extreme pressure to perform and achieve, but i know that fans and critics will rarely take that into consideration! I don’t! Do you?

I recently heard a discussion about mental health issues within professional sport on Radio 5 Live and the thing i could not get out of my head is that “they are just ordinary people.”

You and i have placed such an expectation on money & ‘stuff’ that we believe, wrongly, it has to the power to fix everything. We don’t think a footballer earning £100,000 a week should be depressed or suicidal because we tend to think that money is God! Sadly we are wrong!

The fame, money and accolades do not solve the problems. My recent fascination with Robbie Williams and the blog posts about celebrities have been on my mind. We do not see the criticism of Robbie Williams and consider his spiritual struggles or mental stability. We do not see the harsh treatment of a professional sportsperson or celebrity and wonder how it could be affecting their mental state.

In that Radio discussion someone quoted a football manger who had ‘managed’ a player suffering from depression. He said “what does a professional footballer have to be depressed about?”

This story has made me sad today, take a moment to remember a wife who has lost her husband, an 8month old who has lost her dad…………

Today sees the start of the new Premier League season! From today until May 2010 this contest will capture the imagination of millions of football fans across the world. The summer break always seems to get shorter each year, transfer activity & rumors get us through the waiting! I have been following, supporting, loving and defending Manchester United for 24 years now, when i say that i feel really old.
Over the last ‘quarter of a century’ top flight football in England has changed dramatically with Television rights, big money transfers and big clubs being bought by overseas businessmen. The TV coverage cracks me up though, the hype is fun to watch even though they do not need to get all the millions of fans hyped for the season. So, yet again i will pimp this clip, i love it, it epitomizes the approach that SKY tv take when promoting ‘the football’ and cracks me up every time i see it……..

Manchester United have accepted a potential world record £80m bid from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo. “United have agreed to give Real Madrid permission to talk to the player,” read a statement from the Old Trafford club. It added the decision came at the 24-year-old winger’s request after he “again expressed his desire to leave”.

You can read the full BBC story here

In the current economic climate is this right? £80 million is an amount of money that i cannot even comprehend, an amount that could fix a whole lot of poverty etc etc! As much as i love football, this does not rest well with me. Issues with money rarely do.

What do you think?