Family ties - The Bender twins

Why do children take up playing football? In the history of the game, many youngsters simply wanted to be like their idols – the names of Fitz Walter, Uwe Seeler, Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller, Lothar Matthäus, and Oliver Kahn will ring a bell with every true fan; their latter-day equivalents are Mesut Özil, Philipp Lahm, Thomas Müller and, increasingly, Birgit Prinz and Lira Bajramaj. Players whose personalities and achievements have served as motivation for generations of young boys and girls.

Often enough, though, they've got their role model right in front of them – their dad, uncle, older brothers or sisters. After all, football is a family thing, where passion and talent are handed down like precious heirlooms. "Family Ties", the new series here on DFB.de, takes you right into the living rooms (or, more often than not, goal-equipped front gardens) of German homes where football takes centre stage.

"We have never fallen out"

C'mon, there's got to be something –some kind of habit, character trait, or mannerism that gets your gander up. Nothing? Okay, then let me ask this question differently – does the very likeness, the lack of obvious differences ever annoy you?

"No, not really. We have never fallen out, there's never been any major quarrels over anything. You see, Lars and I are very similar, so I'll hardly find a feature in him that would get on my nerves," says Sven Bender who, when talking about his brother, might just as well be talking about himself – the blessing and the curse of being identical twins.

Sven's and Lars's early footballing careers saw them marching side by side for many years. Here's the story so far, in fast-forward mode: their childhood club is TSV Brannenburg on the German-Austrian border, from 1999-2002 they play for Munich's plucky SpVgg Unterhaching, then they join TSV 1860 München. Both brothers receive regular call-ups for the German under-age national teams, with winning the U19 European Championship tournament in 2008 being the crowning moment. They sign their first professional contracts, play in defensive midfield, regularly stand out for their untiring commitment. There are only marginal differences between them, if any.

Parallelity of events, "healing miracle" included

Bizarrely – albeit, at this stage, no longer surprisingly – they also get injured on almost the same day. One Friday evening just a few weeks ago, with Borussia Dortmund playing away to 1. FC Nürnberg, Sven (who's the younger twin) suffers a partial ligament rupture in his left ankle. On the next day, with VfB Stuttgart hosting Bayer Leverkusen, Lars limps off the pitch, having received a knock on his thigh. And, miraculously, they're back in action the following weekend, on the same pitch even but, obviously, playing for opposing sides. It's Dortmund vs Leverkusen, Sven vs Lars, Sven winning 1-0.

"We're pretty even in almost everything"

Sven has been with Dortmund for three years now, while Lars opted for Leverkusen. Going different ways was a deliberate decision. "We knew all along that one day, we'd have to do this," says Sven, recognizing that all those years spent together were key to their development, with ambition playing a decisive role in the brothers' relationship. Whenever one of them was one step ahead, the other tried even harder to catch up. When one of them was having an off day, his brother would play the motivator; when Lars seemed over-ambitious, Sven would tell him to take it easy, and vice versa.

"Yes, you could say that we've complemented one another well," says Sven, winning the understatement of the month award. Because brotherly love is one thing, and losing to your brother quite another, if not to say "verboten" (forbidden). With sibling rivalry spurning them on, the Bender brothers have ended up enviably good players in a whole range of other sports, too – table tennis, tennis, golf, any ball sport actually. "We're pretty even in almost everything," says Sven.

Individuality lived out on the pitch

Lars and Sven really do look alike, and the many cases of mistaken identity were something the brothers relished as children. On a football pitch, however, they often longed for recognition as individuals. "People would say: 'the Benders have played well' or 'the Benders were rubbish', whatever the case would be," remembers Sven, "but it was unfair. Even if one of us had scored two goals and the other had been plain awful, our performances were always judged collectively."

Wouldn't a different haircut, a type makeover have helped? "No, that was never an option, not something we'd go for only to come across as 'different'. We want to look and behave the way we are, that's all."

"Learning to stand on one's own feet"

Signing for different clubs was a welcome way for the brothers to get out of their rut and make the next step. "We had to learn to stand on our own feet," says Sven Bender, "both in terms of personality and football." Now that three years have come and gone, he knows they took the right decision. "I've become a more independent person and have matured as a player." And ready for the German national team.

Having made a name for themselves in the Bundesliga, another of the Bender brothers' dreams has come true – they have arrived in the "inner circle" of Germany's best footballers. For once, though, they didn't achieve this at the same time; Sven made his debut for Germany on 29 March 2011 in a friendly against Australia at Mönchengladbach, while it took Lars until 6 September 2011 when Poland hosted Germany in Gdansk.

Playing lead roles in Environmental Awareness spot

The first Bender brothers' reunion for Germany took place not on the pitch but in front of the cameras. At the recent "Marketing Days" in Munich, they were chosen to play the lead roles in an environment-themed spot directed by German film-maker Sönke Wortmann ("The Miracle of Berne", "Pope Joan") that will premiere on 27 February 2012 in Bremen, two days before Germany's international friendly match against France.

Wortmann was full of praise about their on-camera performance, and the lay actors themselves thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. "We don't get to meet each other so often any more, so it's just great to be back and work together again," says Lars, to Sven's emphatic nods. Because Bender and Bender are brothers, twins even, but they're also the best of friends.