"Obviously I'm ambitious"
As Germany's new number one Hannover's goalkeeper Robert Enke finds himself in the glare of public attention and media scrutiny as the qualifying process for South Africa 2010 kicks off this weekend. But the 96 custodian is confident he can cope with the added pressure, and knows what he has to do to retain his spot in the starting eleven, "If I can get two or three games on the trot and play as well as I can, then obviously I won't have done my chances any harm. I want to carry on where Jens Lehmann left off." Enke will need to put in the kind of performances that the Reds' fans have become used to over the last four years if he is to achieve this aim.


Enke narrows the angle against Vasiljevic

His main rival for the number one shirt is René Adler, with whom Enke spent six weeks before and during Euro 2008. In an interview with the Sunday Frankfurter Allgemeine, 96's captain described their relationship as, "normal." He reckons they're not close friends, "but we get on very well with each other." Enke is a lot more relaxed towards the competition for the number one spot than his predecessor Jens Lehmann, but admits nevertheless, "Obviously I'm ambitious and want to keep my place."

"There's a lot for which I'm grateful to Hannover 96"
Despite his relaxed outlook, Enke does find it "annoying, that 90-95% of journalists who write about me have no particular knowledge about goalkeeping." Instead a number of papers, particularly the tabloids, rate the 31 year old's younger rivals from Leverkusen, Schalke and even Munich higher than him. Unfortunately it seems that  Robert Enke is less appreciated than players at other clubs because he is at Hannover. Of course you shouldn't always believe what you read in the papers.

This particular branch of the media hasn't necessarily come to the conclusion that Robert Enke shouldn't be German number one solely on the basis of his age. His candid honesty may well have played a part, after Enke admitted he didn't know whether Joachim Löw would have picked René Adler ahead of him for the Belgium game last month had the Leverkusen man been fit. His reasoning is sound though, "Nothing surprises me in this business anymore. In March 2004 I was the second choice at Tenerife in the Spanish second division." But the Hannover fan favourite is keen that he isn't misunderstood, "I know that I have the chance to cement my place in the team, and I want to take it."


German colleagues: Westermann and Enke

In the last few weeks a number of journalists have suggested it would be in Enke's best interests to leave Hannover. Does Robert Enke think he needs to move clubs to further his career? "When you keep hearing that you can't play at interantional level, somewhere along the line you do start to think whether a switch could help," admits the 96 captain frankly,  "but I soon began to ignore these so-called experts." While they suggest that Enke is at a disadvantage because his club aren't in Europe, they neatly brush the fact the Adler is in a similar position at Leverkusen under the rug. Enke has to learn to cope with the double-standards the media constantly peddle.

At the end of the chat with Robert Enke, he looks back over the last few years. "There's a lot for which I'm grateful to Hannover 96." When he rejected the overtures of other teams a year ago, he made it plain that it was a decision to stay at Hannover, not a decision to reject bigger clubs. "Perhaps I've been able to play well for the last four years because I'm so happy here."

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