It's often said that the family that works together stays together.
And this certainly applies to all industries - even football.
Sibling acts, while rare, certainly do occur in the beautiful game. And every now and then, there are a few father and son duos, as well. In fact, there are even entire families involved in football: Dortmund's starlet Gio Reyna is the son of not just one professional player, but two as both his father, Claudio Reyna, and his mother, Danielle Egan Reyna, played for the USMNT and the USWNT respectively.
But even rarer are identical twins, let alone twins who feature in the same league for the same team.
The Bender twins, Lars and Sven have been an interesting case ever since they burst onto the scene as 17-year-olds in 2006. While both play slightly different positions in defense - Lars features as a right back while his twin plays as a center-back - both can also play as a defensive midfielder. From 2006 to 2009, both brothers, who were born on April 27, 1989 in Rosenheim, were on the books at at 1860 Munich, who were then featuring in the 2.Bundesliga.
But after 2009, their paths diverged. Sven moved on to Borussia Dortmund, while Lars signed a contract for Bayer Leverkusen. And for eight seasons, fans were treated to the interesting sight of the twins lining up on opposite sides of the pitch on multiple occasions.
This went on until 2017, when Sven decided to say Auf Wiedersehen to Signal Iduna Park and inked a four-year contract with Leverkusen to join his brother for the first time since 2009.
And after four years playing together, the brothers, who will be celebrating their 32nd birthday later this April, have decided to retire together. Although 32 isn't exactly old in terms of football, they've cited their struggles with fitness as the reason to hang up their boots and feel that if they can't be at their very best day in and day out, it isn't worthwhile to keep on plodding along.
The Bender twins' retirement will see the conclusion of the career of two of the most famous twins in not just German football, but in Europe as for the past 12 years, fans have grown accustomed to seeing the brothers featuring both alongside each other and on opposite ends of the pitch both for their clubs and for the German national team.
