Marie-Louise Eta has develop into the primary girl appointed to handle a males’s group in one in all Europe’s high 5 leagues after being named interim head coach of Bundesliga aspect Union Berlin.
Her appointment till the top of the season follows the dismissal of Steffen Baumgart, whose group 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 received twice in 14 league outings in 2026.
Eta, 34, is not any stranger to breaking obstacles, 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 develop into the primary girl to steer a Bundesliga group 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 develop into the membership’s ladies’s head coach in the summertime.
“We’ve had a vastly disappointing second half of the season and won’t permit 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 latest weeks don’t give us confidence that we are able to flip issues round with the present set-up. We’ve due to this fact determined to make a recent 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 isn’t but safe,” she stated.
“I’m delighted the membership has entrusted me with this difficult job. One in all Union’s strengths has all the time been, and stays, the flexibility to drag collectively in such conditions.
“I’m satisfied that we are going to safe the essential factors.”
Eta’s appointment comes greater than 25 years after Carolina Morace turned the primary girl to handle a males’s skilled group in Europe when she joined Italian third division aspect Viterbese in 1999.
Corinne Diacre spent three seasons accountable for Clermont Foot in France’s Ligue 2 from 2014 to 2017, leaving to develop into head coach of the France ladies’s group.
In July 2023, Hannah Dingley turned the primary girl to handle an expert males’s group in English soccer when she was appointed caretaker boss of Forest Inexperienced Rovers, though she didn’t lead the aspect in a aggressive fixture.
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