Marie-Louise Eta has turn out to be the primary lady appointed to handle a males’s workforce in one among Europe’s high 5 leagues after being named interim head coach of Bundesliga aspect Union Berlin.
Her appointment till the tip of the season follows the dismissal of Steffen Baumgart, whose workforce misplaced 3-1 to backside aspect FC Heidenheim on Saturday.
Union Berlin, who sit eleventh within the 18-team Bundesliga, are 11 factors away from the automated relegation zone with 5 matches remaining however have solely gained twice in 14 league outings in 2026.
Eta, 34, is not any stranger to breaking boundaries, turning into the Bundesliga’s first feminine assistant coach, additionally with Union Berlin, in November 2023.
She deputised for then-manager Nenad Bjelica, who was serving a three-match suspension, throughout a 1-0 win over Darmstadt in January 2024 to turn out to be the primary lady to guide a Bundesliga workforce from the touchline.
Eta, a former Germany youth worldwide and Girls’s Champions League winner with Turbine Potsdam, has been working as Union Berlin’s under-19s supervisor since July 2025 and can turn out to be the membership’s girls’s head coach in the summertime.
“We now have had a vastly disappointing second half of the season and won’t enable ourselves to be blinded by our league place,” stated Horst Heldt, Union’s director of males’s soccer.
“Our state of affairs stays precarious. The performances proven in current weeks don’t give us confidence that we will flip issues round with the present set-up. We now have subsequently determined to make a contemporary begin.”
Eta pointed to the challenges she faces, with Union seven factors forward of St Pauli, who sit within the relegation play-off spot.
“Given the factors hole within the decrease half of the desk, our place within the Bundesliga will not be but safe,” she stated.
“I’m delighted the membership has entrusted me with this difficult activity. One among Union’s strengths has at all times been, and stays, the power to tug collectively in such conditions.
“I’m satisfied that we are going to safe the essential factors.”
