On a chilly afternoon in February, Baltimore soccer product Ben Bender stepped onto the pitch at Subaru Park in Chester, Pa., for a routine substitute appearance.
The Philadelphia Union were cruising in a CONCACAF Champions Cup match against Trinidadian club Defence Force FC, the aggregate score of its two matches against Defence Force already lopsided and the pressure to advance to the next round largely gone. But for Bender, the moment held far more weight. It was an opportunity to show he still belonged in Major League Soccer and that the meniscus tear he suffered 17 months prior hadn’t spelled the end of his promising professional career.
When Bender’s sweet strike from 18 yards out hit the back of the net, relief washed over him.
“Even though we were up six or seven on aggregate at the time, it was still a relief to get a goal after not having scored in almost two years,” Bender said. “I had to get that off my chest. Now I think that gives me a little bit more freedom when I play, to go out there and not put too much pressure on myself.”
It was just one goal in a comfortable win, but for the 25-year-old midfielder-turned-fullback, it felt like confirmation that his career, once derailed by injury, was truly back on track. Fittingly, he also scored the goal back where his pro career began more than a decade earlier.
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Long before he became the No. 1 pick in the 2022 MLS SuperDraft, Bender’s path briefly ran through Philadelphia.
As an eighth-grader, Bender had developed into a highly coveted recruit for local high schools, according to Calvert Hall head coach Rich Zinkand. At the same time, the Union academy wanted him full-time. Bender had briefly played for the Union’s 12-and-under team, taking trips to Qatar to play local teams there ahead of the World Cup. Bender’s parents, Mark and Mindy, agonized over the decision.
The Benders loved Calvert Hall. Ben’s older brothers, Jacob and Josh, were alumni, and the family valued the school’s academics and faith-based environment. Still, Mark Bender couldn’t shake a nagging thought.
“I started to put myself down the road 10 years,” Mark said. “What I didn’t want to hear at a family reunion was, ‘Remember when you wouldn’t let me try and go out to Philly?’ If you’re trying to be a good parent and guide your son into their passions, you should let them make some decisions and try to fail forward.”
So they let him go. Ben moved into a townhouse near the Union’s school with other teenagers, often on their own. The move was a culture shock, a stark contrast to the small classes and tight-knit community he had experienced at his middle school. The family ultimately decided to bring him home. He soon enrolled at Calvert Hall and joined the boys’ soccer team.
Zinkand, who had coached both Jacob and Josh, knew exactly what Calvert Hall would be getting if Ben returned. As a freshman, Bender walked into a senior-laden Cardinals team and immediately earned his place.
“He ended up starting for us as a freshman out wide,” Zinkand said. “For a freshman, just being able to get on the field, much less start, that’s rare. But they could see it right away — he was a very, very good player.”
Calvert Hall went on to win the 2016 MIAA A Conference championship against rival Archbishop Curley, the program’s first title since 2003. As the final whistle blew, Bender was mobbed by not only his teammates but his family, too. Jacob Bender, who missed out on winning a championship during his time at Calvert, still gets goosebumps thinking about it.
“Watching him be able to get significant playing time … he was dynamite coming onto the field as a freshman,” he said. “To be there as his older brother and just storm the field and grab him and have him embrace that moment was so cool.”
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Bender blossomed in his final three seasons at Calvert Hall, scoring 15 goals as a senior. He then starred for two years at Maryland under Sasho Cirovski before being chosen by Charlotte with the No. 1 pick in 2022 and making an immediate MLS impact.
As a rookie in 2022, Bender appeared in 28 games, including 19 starts. He bagged his first three professional goals and distributed six assists. Charlotte, an expansion team in its inaugural season, appeared to have struck gold with its first draft pick in franchise history.
“Everything was going very, very easily in the beginning,” Bender said. “I was having a lot of success.”
Then came the turbulence. The following season, in the 76th minute against the Union on Sept. 20 in the midst of another productive campaign, Bender went down clutching his knee. His father still remembers the moment it happened.
“I remember watching the game when he got injured and I said to myself, ‘Get up,'” Mark Bender said. “He hobbled off and I said, that looks a lot worse than I thought it was. … That left him in a real mental and physical battle for the next year and a half.”
Like any athlete facing a lengthy absence from the field, Ben Bender was forced to find purpose in things other than goals and assists — months of physical therapy and hours of solitary exercises that no one could do for him.
“When you go through it, you really have to give even more to come out on the other side,” he said. “If you don’t work your hardest every day in the gym and take everything seriously, then you’re not going to come back as good as you were before.”
Mark watched the toll the injury took on his youngest son. Ben, who had dominated every level of soccer he’d ever played, was suddenly sidelined with his identity as a player thrown in doubt.
“As a dad, that’s one of the most challenging things — watching your son, who a team would depend on, go from that to nothing,” Mark said. “You’ve got to be an encourager and a supporter.”
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Bender struggled to regain his 2023 form quickly enough under new manager Dean Smith, who was hired three months after his injury, and by April 2025, Charlotte waived its former No. 1 overall pick. For many players, that’s the beginning of the end of their pro careers. For Bender, it was the reopening of a door closed almost a decade prior.
When the Union signed him for the rest of the 2025 season, the symmetry was hard to miss. The club that had first introduced him to professional soccer as a teenager was now offering him a chance to revive his career. He played in seven games in 2025, then re-signed with the team through June 2027.
In his return, his role has evolved. In preseason and early games, Union manager Bradley Carnell and his staff used Bender both in midfield and at left back, an unfamiliar position that he has embraced.
“Some of my strengths are seeing the field, playing balls in behind, overlapping. That suits me,” Bender said. “The defensive piece is something I need to work on, because I was a midfielder growing up, but left back [for] this team can suit my strengths.”
Now, amid his second season with the Union, Bender talks like someone who understands how fragile a career can be — and how rare it is to get a second chance in a place that feels, in many ways, like home.
“I think mentality is one of the biggest parts,” he said. “If you’re not mentally there, your body’s going to follow. Getting your mind in the right spot prepares your body to do what we do every day. Going through all this adversity has allowed me to build a stronger mentality … to have belief and to try to lead by example.”
That is what made the Champions Cup goal more than just a consolation prize in a blowout. It was a sign that his journey — despite his dreams not quite coming true as an academy player, the return home to Calvert Hall and the ups and the downs — still brought him back to the same club, older and wiser, determined to make the most of a second act.
This time, he knows exactly what it took to get there, and how quickly it can all be taken away.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Philadelphia Union