Manfred Bender (born 24 May 1966) is a German football manager and former player. He last managed

Austria Klagenfurt Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ci ...

. Between 1989 and 1999 he played for

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the DF ...

and

1860 Munich , commonly known as TSV 1860 München (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. 1860 Munich was one of the founding members ...

. 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 ...

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 B ...

, then

. He was an emerging talent of the same style as

Jürgen Kohler Jürgen Kohler (born 6 October 1965) is a World Cup-winning German footballer and manager, who played as a centre-back. Since 2018, he has been in charge of the youth team of Viktoria Köln. Playing career Kohler enjoyed a lengthy career at the ...

Alan McInally Alan Bruce McInally (born 10 February 1963) is a Scottish former professional footballer, who played for Ayr United, Celtic, Aston Villa, Bayern Munich and Kilmarnock. Ayr-born McInally variously went by the nicknames of Rambo and Big Mac ...

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 leagu ...

. 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. The majority of his player career was as a striker for Borussia Mönchengladbach in its golden era of the 1960s and '70s, when they won many natio ...

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. Club ...

). 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 football manager and former player. He played most of his career as an attacking midfielder for Bayern Munich. During his career he won the UEFA Cup in 1996 (scoring ...

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

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

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

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the S ...

, 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 (; lettered as ) or 1860 Munich, is a sports club based in Munich. The club's football team currently plays in the 3. Liga, the third tier of German football. 1860 Munich was one of the founding members o ...

. 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. FC Saarbrücken (german: 1. Fußball-Club Saarbrücken e. V.) is a football club based in Saarbrücken, Saarland. The club plays in the 3. Liga, which is the third tier of football in Germany. The club began its existence as the football de ...

, 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