Born in
Heidelberg, Herdling began his career with
SG Heidelberg-Kirchheim and moved later to SpVgg Neckarsteinach in the youth ranks. At the beginning of the
2002–03 season, he joined
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in the
Regionalliga Süd. In the
third round of the 2003–04 DFB-Pokal, Herdling scored the winning goal for Hoffenheim against Bundesliga side
Bayer Leverkusen, which ended 3–2. He left the club before the
2008–09 season to join Regionalliga team
Waldhof Mannheim. After the first half of the
2008–09 season, Herdling returned to Hoffenheim on 26 January 2009. On 16 April 2012, Herdling was loaned out to the
Philadelphia Union of
Major League Soccer, and played for two months. In his time in America, he played in four league matches (starting three) and two
Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup ties. After he had scored twice in Hoffenheim's 9–0
DFB-Pokal first round win against
SG Aumund-Vegesack, coach
Markus Gisdol took him to the first-team squad for the
2013–14 season.
Coaching career During his playing career, Herdling was already assistant coach to Frank Fröhling at Hoffenheim's U15s. He held this position from the 2009/10 season until his move to the USA in spring 2012. After ending his career, Herdling became assistant coach alongside
Andreas Ibertsberger for the 2016/17 season with
Marco Wildersinn at Hoffenheim's second team, which played in the fourth-tier
Regionalliga Südwest. After two seasons, he took over as head coach of the U16s for the 2018/19 season. After the 2019/20 season at youth level was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Herdling took over
Alfred Schreuder's Bundesliga team together with former assistant coach Matthias Kaltenbach and U19 coach
Marcel Rapp from match day 31 of the 2019/20 season until the end of the season. The club described the transitional arrangement as a "team solution", with Kaltenbach as the official head coach. The coaching team won 3 of the final 4 matches and finished the season in 6th place, qualifying directly for the
Europa League. For the 2020/21 season, Herdling took over the U17s. At the beginning of October 2020, he took over the second team after
Marco Wildersinn was released. In June 2022, he was succeeded in this role by Vincent Wagner and was to take on a new role at TSG while he began his training as a soccer instructor. == Career statistics ==