At the age of 14, he moved to Energie Cottbus, where he attended the so-called "Elite School of Football", the Lausitzer Sports Academy.

For the 2008–09 season, he signed a two-year contract with Erzgebirge Aue, being involved in the same operation that also brought his teammates Arne Feick, Jan Hochscheidt and Marc Hensel to Saxony.

Thanks to some impressive performances, he quickly replaced Stephan Flauder as the club's main goalkeeper, and he achieved his biggest sporting success early on by winning the promotion to the 2.

The first appearance in the second tier for both the goalkeeper and Erzgebirge turned out to beat pretty successful: in fact, while at the winter break the newly promoted team surprisingly topped the league table, at the end of the season they finished in fifth place.

At the beginning of the 2013–14 season, Männel initially lost his starting place in goal to newly arrived Sascha Kirschstein, but managed to regain it during the second half of the league.