He was in goal six times in the Bundesliga and twice in the UEFA Cup in the following years. On 10 February 2007, in a home game against Eintracht Frankfurt, he went in goal for the Werkself in place of number one keeper Jörg Butt who was sent off on 39 minutes for handling the ball outside the box. A week later, in the home game against Hannover 96, he played again before the meteoric rise of René Adler started with the away game at Schalke. Bene remained an important part of the goalkeeping set-up at Bayer 04 for the next few years. He was out of action for a long time in 2009 with a knee injury. When Bene fought his way back to fitness all the goalkeeping spots at Bayer 04 were taken and he was without work for a year in 2011. He had trials for Mainz 05 in August but was not taken on. And other offers did not come at first.
He was signed by FC Saarbrücken in 2012. After a season with the Black and Blues, Bene moved on to the Regional League West to play for Sportfreunde Lotte where he was the number one keeper with the exception of a two-month break in 2015 when he played for SV Elversberg. In 2016 he was promoted to the third division with the Sportfreunde and he played against the Werkself twice in the DFB Pokal. In the first match against his former club in 2015 in the first round he could not do much about the defeat. In the second meeting a year later in the second round, he became a big hero when he saved the penalties taken by Kevin Volland and Julian Baumgartlinger that put his team in the Round of 16 of the DFB Pokal. Lotte then also beat 1860 Munich. They went out in the quarter-finals against the eventual winners Borussia Dortmund.
