This year, Janus Berendts, the eldest of the three brothers, followed suit and moved from the local club TuS Obermenzing to the Munich sports club. He also wanted to approach hockey again on this more professional level and “the idea of being on the field together with his two brothers was “It was of course also a big catalyst,” says the 24-year-old. For some, the idea of playing on a team with your siblings may not be particularly exciting. The well-known dynamics certainly come into play, right? However, it seems to work for the Berendts. Morten Berendts emphasizes that he always wants to get the best out of his brothers. “In both a positive and a negative sense,” adds his big brother Nikas and laughs: “It’s not like we yell at each other in training. But you can treat each other differently on the pitch when you know each other so well.”
Hockey is a family sport. There have already been several sibling duos such as the Wess brothers Timo and Benjamin, who won Olympic gold twice together on the German national hockey team. In the case of the Berendts brothers, there are three of them, and at the highest level in Germany. In the game against Berliner HC (3:4) at the end of September, all three were on the pitch together in the Bundesliga for the first time. “It’s fundamentally special when you can play with your two siblings on a team. Sometimes you stand on the pitch and then realize it, that’s nice,” says Nikas Berendts. He and Morten still have the chance to make it into the German national team.
All three spent every free minute of their childhood playing hockey, whether on the field or on the street. They already had the idea of playing together in the Bundesliga, “but that was already very far away. “First and foremost, we always did it for fun,” says Morten Berendts. Her parents went along with it, even though her father was annoyed by the hot topic of hockey at the dinner table a few times. All three brothers emphasize that they always felt support, but never pressure to perform, from home. The ambition seems to have developed through our own efforts and through mutual motivation. It started with Janus training his youngest brother Morten as a child. Today he can cheer him on at the European and World Championships in the U18 and U21 teams and let him explain the processes in the new team at Münchner SC. A give and take.
Without motivation and discipline nothing would work. Although it is easier to get to the top in hockey than in football, for example – for comparison: the German Football Association has over two million active players, while the German Hockey Association only has just under 90,000 – with However, you have to expect a lot of effort there too. This extends to six to seven training sessions in the preparation period, training several times a week, plus athletic training, plus game days on the weekend with sometimes very long journeys. “It’s an insane amount of effort for there being no salary and no bonuses,” says Janus Berendts. You play for prestige, as this effort is little to no recognized outside of the “hockey bubble”.
“When we were little, I think it was quite a financial burden.”
His 22-year-old brother Nikas has already celebrated success with the youth national teams, but for which he still had to accommodate additional training sessions per week. Morten, the youngest of the three, is still in the middle of the U21 team at 19 years old. There they received contracts from outfitters who provide the expensive equipment. Expenses for shoes, rackets and membership fees can easily amount to several hundred euros per season. It’s good that these costs are now being covered. Janus Berendts notes: “When we were little, I think it was quite a financial burden.” Now all three of them no longer have any major expenses, but they also have no income.
The men of the Munich sports club were promoted to the Bundesliga this field season and are following the motto “young, wild and free” of coach Patrick Fritsche. The young team wants to show what they can do and are currently in tenth place out of twelve in the table after the 2:5 defeat on Saturday at Club an der Alster. From November onwards, the current field season will be interrupted by the indoor season, in which the team will also compete in the Bundesliga.
