An outfield player, unlike his son, Herbert Burdenski was capped five times (two goals) by Sepp Herberger, playing just two of these five games after World War II.

[2] Starting at STV Horst-Emscher, Burdenski joined Schalke 04 as a teenager to debut for the Gelsenkirchen outfit in three separate Bundesliga matches in the 1970–1971 season.

From 1973 he succeeded Bernard, staying the regular in the goal of the North German outfit until Otto Rehhagel preferred young Oliver Reck over the then veteran shot-stopper ahead of the Bundesliga title winning campaign of Werder Bremen in 1987–88.

In February 1976 Bremen, lying in a precarious position in the bottom-half of the Bundesliga then, sacked Herbert Burdenski to replace him with Otto Rehhagel.

On 23 February 2002, the then 51-year-old made a single appearance for SV Werder Bremen II in the third German division after injuries had seen the reserves ending up short of goalkeepers.

Looking for decent goalkeepers to someday succeed ageing Sepp Maier in the West Germany goal, Helmut Schön turned his attention to the Werder Bremen man in 1977, handing Burdenski his first of altogether 12 caps in a friendly in Montevideo against Uruguay.