From the foot of the Alps to the River Dhünn

Winner of the bronze Fritz Walter medal, twice champion of Germany and DFB Cup winner, Champions League finalist in 2013 plus a silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro: Sven Bender ends his playing career at the age of 32 on Saturday 22 May at Dortmund where he won many of his honours – the portrait of a team player with a winning mentality.

Fresh mountain air, lush meadows – as far as eye can see on the slopes of the crest of the Alps. And in the middle of it a football-mad pair of twins with the ball at their feet. In Brannenburg near Rosenheim in 1993, very few people would have thought that two local lads would soon emerge on the big stage of world football. Together with his 12-minute younger twin brother Lars, Sven Bender laid the foundations at the start of the 1990s for his impressive, title-packed career. Sven and his brother Lars played for TSV Brannenburg at the foot of the Alps for six years before joining the youth section at SpVgg Unterhaching.

Brannenburg, Haching and the lions

The highly talented twins headed ever further north in the Free State of Bavaria from the community with a population of 6,500 via Unterhaching. After three successful seasons in the Unterhaching youth teams, 1860 Munich put out feelers for the Bender twins in 2002.

"When I've stopped playing, I'll be able to look at myself in the mirror and know I have given everything in every training session and in every game," said the 32-year-old Sven Bender in the spring of 2021. That attitude was evident back then as the footballing ability of the defender went through a rapid development thanks to ambition and discipline at the academy of the Munich Lions – his favourite club. The first of the ‘Bender virtues’, the complete dedication to football on and off the pitch, paid off for Sven in 2006 in the form of the bronze Fritz Walter medal for U17 players – and winning the Germany U17 title with 1860 Munich must also be mentioned in this context.

maturity and vision

Marco Kurz, the Lions U23 coach at the time, recognised the potential of the two Bender youngsters early on and he put them through from the youth team to the 1860 Reserves. Above all maturity and vision shown by the twins on the pitch had proved crucial as he explained in an interview with SPORT1. Kurz backed the ambitious Brannenburgers and helped them make the step up to the first team – the then 17-year-old Sven made his debut for the senior team on 18 December 2006 in a second division game against Erzgebirge Aue.

After another 68 appearances in the sky blue Lions kit, the versatile defender joined Borussia Dortmund in 2009/10 while his brother Lars signed for the Werkself. An incisive career move: For the first time since the four-year-old twins started their football career at TSV Brannenburg the two brothers went their separate ways 16 years later. From Sven's perspective, the right decision as "we spent every minute together before our moves. It was very important for our sporting and personal development to go our separate ways. We knew we had to take that step at that moment. It gave both of us an incredible boost," explained the younger and somewhat taller Bender.

'iron Manni'

The Brannenburger made good use of that "incredible boost" at Dortmund. In his second season at BVB he unexpectedly became a champion of Germany under the then head coach Jürgen Klopp, who gave him the nickname of 'Manni' because of the former Lions player Manfred Bender. There followed other honours in the form of a second Bundesliga title, two DFB Cups as well as appearing in the Champions League final in 2013 – Sven also won a silver medal at the 2016 Olympic Games with Germany. With all this sporting success with BVB and Germany – in 2008 the two Bender brothers won the U 19 European Championships with Germany and were both named the best players in the tournament – he made a massive contribution and quickly earned the nickname of "Iron Manni" amongst the Dortmund supporters. And with good reason.

Sven Bender goes in where it hurts. Where other players might hesitate or even avoid a challenge, the stalwart is always prepared to put his head in the way. Klopp, who worked with him at Dortmund for six years, learned to love the unconditional determination of his former protégé – even if in this case his compliment is evident reading between the lines: "I'm really glad I'm neither the father nor the mother of the Benders. If I sit in front of the television and see the children come off the pitch bleeding then nobody needs that," he once joked.

winning mentality and monster challenger

After eight successful years in Black and Yellow, the Bender turned into a central defender by Thomas Tuchel, moved on to Leverkusen in 2017 where he was reunited with his twin brother Lars. In the following four years, Sven was a regular first choice and key defender at the Werkself. Above all, his relentless challenges and his sacrifice for the whole team made Sven, in addition to his brother Lars, a fan favourite with the Black and Red supporters. In the current season he also impressed with his intense tackling and with 57 per cent of challenges won he is top of the rankings ahead of other defensive specialists like Leon Goretzka (56.52 per cent) and Robert Andrich (54.94 per cent).

In addition to the sporting and physical qualities that Sven Bender possesses, his uncompromising desire to win stands out and he can share that with the whole team. He played a significant role in the Werkself qualifying for the Champions League in 2019 and the DFB Cup final a year later. With our number 5 on the pitch, Bayer 04 can mostly get a result on the road or at the BayArena: Sven Bender has made 17 appearances for the Black and Reds in the top-flight this term – only one of those games was lost. And if those stats do not speak for themselves then another Bender quote underlines the ambition of the 32-year-old: "Anybody who can't think big, can’t achieve big things because his horizon is limited."