Career
Youth
Born in Erding (Bavaria), Bönig started to play football at the local club Eintracht Freising. His first position was keeper but after a couple of matches he moved to the left offensive midfield. After impressing as a junior, Bönig joined Bayern Munich as a 14-year-old in 1994 and played there for seven years.
In the last year he established himself in the second team of the club which played in the Regionalliga.
While playing at Bayern Munich, Bönig made twenty starts for the German national youth teams. MSV Duisburg
In 2001, Bönig started his professional career at MSV Duisburg in the 2.
Bundesliga and stayed for two seasons at this club In this period he made 66 matches and scored two goals.
Since his contract expired at the summer of 2003 he got offers from different clubs and he decided to move to then Bundesliga club, VfL Bochum.
VfL Bochum
However, in the following season Bochum were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga. But in the next season, they returned directly to the highest level again. After Bochum could maintain themselves in the season 2006-2007 his contract was extended until the season 2009-2010.
In the winter of 2009 Tomasz Zdebel left the club which made Bönig the longest-serving player at the club in the selection.
Bönig acts normally as left defender. His biggest assets are his mentality and fighting spirit, which made him to a crowd-pleaser in the past years.
Interestingly he never scored a goal in the German Bundesliga in his over 150 matches.