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We have seen many brothers play for different clubs in Europe be it the Neville brothers or the Cruyff brothers. Similarly, there are many twin brothers who have played for several major European clubs, take for example the de Boer twins who played for Barcelona.Here, we take a look at six pair of twin brothers who are currently active in football.
#6 Vasili Berezutski and Aleksei Berezutski
The twins are both defenders who currently play for CSKA Moscow having started their career with Torpedo-ZIL. Vasili joined CSKA in 2002, while Aleksei joined them in 2001 and had played for Chernomorets in between.
Aleksei had scored the first goal for CSKA in the final of the 2005 UEFA Cup final against Sporting as they came from behind to win the game.
Internationally they have both represented Russia consistently throughout their playing career and Vasili was named the team captain for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in the absence of Roman Shirokov.
#5 Dmitri Kombarov and Kirill Kombarov
Kombarov twins are another pair of twins from Russia. The brothers started their career with Dynamo Moscow and together left for Spartak Moscow in 2010.
Dmitri plays on the left wing as a full back or as a winger while his brother plays in similar positions on the right side.
Dmitri has had a far more successful playing career and has represented Russia 28 times so far while his brother has struggled for playing time at Spartak and moved to Torpedo Moscow on loan this season. Kirill has never represented Russia internationally.
#4 Hamit Altintop and Halil Altintop
The Turkish Internationals have played for several clubs during their career and Hamit has played for some of the biggest clubs in Europe.
They were both born in Germany and hence started their career with local German club Wattenscheid, for whom they played till 2003.
Hamit moved to Bundesliga giants Schalke in 2003 while Halil moved to Kaiserslautern, but eventually Halil joined his brother Hamit at Schalke in 2006. The brothers played together for one year before Hamit moved to Bayern Munich on a free transfer in 2007.
Hamit played four seasons at Bayern and then moved on a free transfer again and this time to Real Madrid, but he played very few matches for the Spanish club and left them to join Turkish giants Galatasaray in 2012, for whom he still plays.
Halil played for Schalke after his brother left till 2010 before moving to Eintracht Frankfurt, then later to Tabzonspor and now he plays for FC Augsburg.
They have both represented Turkey at the International stage from 2004.
#3 Jose Callejon and Juanmi Callejon
The twins started their youth career with Real Madrid and left the club in 2008 without making an appearance for the first team. Jose then joined La Liga side Espanyol while Juanmi signed for Mallorca.
After playing three seasons for Espanyol, Jose eventually returned to Real Madrid in 2011 and spent two seasons at the Madrid club while winning the La Liga in the process.
Prior to the star of the 2013-14 season, he left Real and joined Napoli and has had a very good career with the Italian club and recently earned a call-up to the Spain National team.
As for Juanmi, things didn’t work out as he would have wished to after leaving Real in 2008. He made on appearance for Mallorca and was loaned out to Albacete in the second division for the very next season. After which he joined Cordoba in 2010 and then Greek side Hercules in 2011.
Juanmi didn’t find his feet in Greece as well even though he moved from Hercules to Levadiakos in 2013. He currently plays for Bolivian side Club Bolivar.
#2 Rafael da Silva and Fabio da Silva
The da Silva twins earned fame after they joined Manchester United in 2008 from Brazilian club Fluminense. It is rumored that Arsenal had invited the twins to train with them without the permission of Fluminense, but their mother persuaded them to show respect to Fluminense.
Rafael plays primarily as a right-back while Fabio has been deployed on either flanks as a full back. They made their Manchester United debut in 2008
Fabio was the first to get an International call up for Brazil in 2011 and has represented them twice while Rafael had to wait till 2012 to get his all up and he too has played for Brazil twice.
Rafel still plays for Manchester United but Fabio’s career hasn’t gone as well as his brother’s. Fabio was loaned out to QPR for the 2012-13 season and then sold to Cardiff City in 2014, for whom he still plays for in the Football League Championship.
#1 Lars Bender and Sven Bender
The Bender twins are easily the most famous twins in football today. The German Internationals started their career with 1860 Munchen and the duo left the Munich club in 2009 and went their separate ways as Sven moved to Borussia Dortmund and Lars to Bayer Leverkusen.
Lars and Sven both play as defensive midfielders and are heavily discussed names during transfer windows.
Internationally they represented Germany at the U-19 Championship in 2008 and were jointly named the players of the tournament as they won.
Although Sven has had more success that Lars domestically in terms of titles, Lars has more international caps than Sven. The twins made their full international debuts in 2011 and Lars was part of the 23 man squad for Euro 2012 and even scored the winner against Denmark.
Sven was ruled out from participating at the 2014 World Cup very early through an injury while Lars had to pull out after suffering an injury in training after being named in the provisional 30 man squad.
