Spanning more than 50 years

Spanning more than 50 years, Friedrich Müller began his career in an unpromising apprenticeship as a Sanskrit scholar and culminated in virtually every honor that European governments and learned societies could bestow.
What is wrong with the above sentence?

At the very least the match between ‘began his career’ and ‘culminated’ needs changing. Also, the use of ‘spanning’ seems to point to the man instead of his career.