Mainka: Heidenheim Captain Achieves Two Full Seasons

The 2024/25 season saw Patrick Mainka complete another Bundesliga campaign without missing a minute, helping his club to remain in the league in the process. By doing so, he put his name in the history books, and alongside a certain Bayern Munich legend, too. bundesliga.com reveals all…

Following the conclusion of Heidenheim’s successful quest to stay in the Bundesliga by beating Elversberg in the promotion-relegation play-off, captain Patrick Mainka had successfully helped lead his side to safety, whilst simultaneously giving him the chance to keep making history.

The sound of the final whistle at the end of the second leg at the URSAPHARM-Arena drew the curtain on Heidenheim’s, and Mainka’s, second consecutive Bundesliga season, of which he had played every minute, meaning he now joins an exclusive list.

He was as reliable as ever in their turbulent season, winning 338 tackles in 2024/25, which sees him rank eighth in the league. His tackle success rate of 60.25% was equally impressive, placing him ninth in the overall leaderboard.

Since joining Heidenheim from Borussia Dortmund’s reserves in 2018, where he played alongside Werder Bremen’s Amos Pieper, Mainka has gone on to make over 250 appearances for the club, with 68 of those coming in the past two Bundesliga seasons.

He made the move at the same time as current teammate Niklas Dorsch and Bayer Leverkusen and Germany international Robert Andrich when they were still in the Bundesliga 2, and has stuck around long enough to make another bit of history in addition to guiding the club to Germany’s top tier for the first time in their history.

He’s been Frank Schmidt’s most trusted player in these past couple of campaigns, putting him alongside Freiburg’s Christian Günter and Germany and Bayern legend Philipp Lahm as one of three players to have been on the pitch for every minute of two successive top-flight campaigns.

Now that Heidenheim have secured their place in the Bundesliga for the 2025/26, Mainka has the opportunity to join another esteemed list. If the defensive rock were to repeat the feat in their third season in the Bundesliga, he’d join a select group of players to have made it three consecutive seasons without missing a minute, which includes three former Eintracht Braunschweig players – the club against which Mainka last failed to complete 90 minutes in 2022/23. Those names include Wolfgang Brase, Walter Schmidt and Peter Kaack, as well as former Bochum player Michael Lameck.

Borussia Mönchengladbach legend Berti Vogts and Eintracht Frankfurt great Manfred Binz both managed six seasons without missing a beat, but still fall short of the spectacular Sepp Maier. Between the 1966/67 and 1978/79 seasons, the former Bayern goalkeeper recorded a heroic 13 campaigns uninterrupted, leaving Mainka – who turns 31 in November – plenty (too much, actually) of work to do.

Bundesliga.com