Manfred Bender (born 24 May 1966) is a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former player. He last managed

Austria Klagenfurt Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, of which the capital Vienna is the most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Ger ...

. Between 1989 and 1999 he played for

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional association foo ...

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher Sport-Club Mühlburg-Phönix e. V., better known as Karlsruher SC, is a Football in Germany, German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of Germa ...

and

1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; ''sechzig'' locally ; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of the German football pyramid. Their current home gr ...

. In total Bender played 229 games in the Bundesliga, scoring 42 goals. Bender is most fondly remembered for a goal scored against

Oliver Kahn Oliver Rolf Kahn (; born 15 June 1969) is a German football executive and former professional player who played as a goalkeeper. He started his career in the Karlsruher SC Junior team in 1975. Twelve years later, Kahn made his debut match in t ...

and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga.

Career

In summer 1989, Bender was playing in the second level of the Bundesliga, for

SpVgg Unterhaching Spielvereinigung Unterhaching () is a German sports club in Unterhaching, a semi-rural municipality on the southern outskirts of the Bavarian capital Munich. The club is widely known for playing in the first-division association football league ...

, then

. He was an emerging talent of the same style as

Jürgen Kohler Jürgen Kohler (born 6 October 1965) is a German former professional footballer and manager, who played as a centre-back. He is currently the U17 manager of Bonner SC. Playing career Club Kohler enjoyed a lengthy career at the highest level with ...

Alan McInally Alan Bruce McInally (born 10 February 1963) is a Scottish former professional footballer, sports reporter and pundit. As a player he was a striker for Ayr United, Celtic, Aston Villa, Bayern Munich and Kilmarnock. He is now a regular reporte ...

and Radmilo Mihajlovic. In spite of this competition he made 20 appearances in the season and scored two goals. He also played and scored as they won the

1990 DFB-Supercup The 1990 DFB-Supercup was the fourth DFB-Supercup, an annual football match contested by the winners of the previous season's Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal competitions. The match was played at the Wildparkstadion, Karlsruhe, and contested by league ...

. Next season, Bender played 33 games, and scored five goals, as he was now a fully-fledged member of the squad. Season 1991–92 went badly for Bayern, as they went through three coaches (

Jupp Heynckes Josef "Jupp" Heynckes (; born 9 May 1945) is a German retired professional footballer and manager. For the majority of his playing career he was as a striker for Borussia Mönchengladbach in its golden era of the 1960s and '70s, when they won m ...

Søren Lerby Søren Lerby (born 1 February 1958) is a Danish former football player, manager, and licensed agent. As a player, he spent most of his career in Dutch football, winning five Eredivisie championships with Ajax Amsterdam and two with PSV Eindho ...

and

Erich Ribbeck Erich Ribbeck (born 13 June 1937) is a German former professional football player and manager, best known for coaching in the Bundesliga. In 1988, he won the UEFA Cup as manager of Bayer Leverkusen, the first title in the club's history. Playin ...

). Bender moved to Karlsruhe in 1992 after a bad end-of-season result, in a direct swap with

Mehmet Scholl Mehmet Tobias Scholl (born Mehmet Tobias Yüksel; 16 October 1970) is a German Association football, football manager and former player. He played most of his career as an attacking midfielder for FC Bayern Munich, Bayern Munich. During his care ...

. Bender moved to Karlsruhe in what became a very attack-minded team which immediately reached the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. In his strongest season to date, including a 7–0 victory over

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

, Bender contributed significantly, helping them to reach the 1996 German Cup final. 1996 saw Bender transfer to

TSV 1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; ''sechzig'' locally ; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's association football, football team plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football league system ...

. He played there for three seasons, but in his last, only saw six full matches. For one season he moved back to Karlsruhe, and then two more (2000–02) were spent playing for

1. FC Saarbrücken 1. Fußball-Club Saarbrücken () is a German Football in Germany, football club based in Saarbrücken, Saarland. The club plays in the 3. Liga, which is the third tier of football in Germany. History The club began its existence as the footbal ...

, a second-league team. Then he played some years in the lower leagues, and has, since 2006, embraced a new career, coaching in Austria. In February 2011, Bender was appointed fitness trainer for the Nigerian national team.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bender, Manfred 1966 births Living people German men's footballers Footballers from Munich Men's association football midfielders Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players SpVgg Unterhaching players FC Bayern Munich footballers Karlsruher SC players TSV 1860 Munich players 1. FC Saarbrücken players SV Wilhelmshaven players German football managers SK Austria Klagenfurt (2007) managers West German men's footballers German expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Austria German expatriate sportspeople in Austria German expatriate sportspeople in Nigeria SC Rheindorf Altach managers