Soccer Football - Nations League - Germany Training - DFB Campus, Frankfurt, Germany - November 11, 2024 Germany's Robin Gosens during training REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) - Professional footballers are having to deal with a daily barrage of online hate that threatens their mental health, Germany international Robin Gosens said on Thursday.
The 30-year-old Gosens, who missed this year's Euros on home soil after struggling for form last season, is back in the Germany squad for their Nations League group matches against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Saturday and Hungary next week.
But the wingback is well aware of how a players' mental health can be affected by online hate comments.
"I think it is extremely important to talk about mental illnesses," Gosens told a press conference.
"They are still linked with too many stigma. Depression or mental illnesses are very serious and we should reach a point where we can talk about them."
Gosens said his world collapsed when he missed out on the Euros but having to deal with toxic comments online adds to any pressure to perform every few days.
"If we talk about mental issues as something normal then it will help people to open up and seek help," he said. "It is no weakness to open up. It is courageous and we should not be confronted with hate but an embracing society.
"Hate comments are a poison on top of it (mental issues). We all deal with them (comments) daily because unfortunately internet anonymity is misused for terrible comments."
Gosens, who studied psychology, was speaking days after the 15th anniversary of the suicide of Germany goalkeeper Robert Enke in 2009, who had been battling depression.
"Behind a footballer after a bad performance is a person who has emotions, who can be affected and broken if you wish them death or death to his family. This is the unfiltered truth," Gosens said.
"As long as we don't zoom out and see the person behind that football player then we won't develop. Before saying such crap comments, pardon my language, it is best to think what they could cause to someone."
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
