Union Berlin caused a sensation this Sunday morning. The Bundesliga club made football history by appointing Marie-Louise Eta as interim coach of its men’s first team. At 34, she became the first woman to manage a club in the Bundesliga, and even in one of the five major European championships. A strong decision, taken after the dismissal of Steffen Baumgart, with the mission of keeping the Berlin club in the elite by the end of the season.
A pioneer with an already historic journey
A former high-level player, notably with 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam, Marie-Louise Eta has a rich record with several national titles and a Champions League won in 2010. An intelligent and strategic midfielder, she quickly established herself as a real metronome at the heart of the game. Her career, completed at just 26 years old without going through the German national team, led her to an early retraining… but particularly successful in coaching.
Since then, his progress has been meteoric. After experiences with the German youth teams, she joined Union Berlin in 2023, where she became the first female assistant in the Bundesliga and the Champions League. With convincing results with the U19s, she has established herself as a credible technician, capable of managing a group and imposing her ideas in a demanding environment. In January 2024, while coach Nenad Bjelica was suspended, she managed the first team for one match and led Union Berlin to a victory against Darmstadt.
A first major challenge to achieve
After a stint as an individual coach with the women’s team, contributing to its rise to the Bundesliga, in July 2025 she took over as head of the men’s U19 team. His first full season was very successful: 22 matches, 13 wins, four draws and five defeats, with a first place in the preliminary group. At the beginning of April 2026, the club announced that she would become coach of the women’s first team in the summer. But the emergency in the men’s team changes everything: on April 11, she was named interim for the end of the season. Marie-Louise Eta will have five matches to try to keep the club in the Bundesliga, while the Union has eleven points ahead of the first relegation.
“Given the points gap in the second half of the ranking, our continuation is not yet assured. I am delighted that the club has entrusted me with this demanding mission. One of the strengths of the Union has always been its ability to stick together in these moments. I am convinced that we will win the crucial points”she reacted. But beyond the field, this appointment goes beyond the simple sporting framework: Marie-Louise Eta embodies the symbol of a major evolution in European football. Because Horst Heldt, the Union’s director of men’s professional football, already expects to see it as “head coach of the professional women’s team this summer”.
