BERLIN: Bundesliga membership Union Berlin on Sunday (Apr 12) named Marie-Louise Eta as head coach, making her the primary feminine supervisor of a males’s group in a top-five European league, after former mentor Steffen Baumgart was sacked.
The 34-year-old will take over for the rest of the season.
“I’m delighted the membership has entrusted me with this difficult activity,” Eta stated in a press release.
“One in every of Union’s strengths has at all times been our capacity to tug collectively in such conditions. And naturally, I am satisfied that we’ll get the factors we’d like with this group.”
Eta grew to become the primary feminine assistant coach in Bundesliga historical past when she was promoted to the function in 2023.
By no means earlier than has a males’s top-flight membership in Germany, England, Spain, Italy or France – thought-about the top-five European leagues – appointed a girl within the head coach function.
Eta’s first match within the dugout is on Saturday when Union host struggling Wolfsburg.
Baumgart was sacked early on Sunday morning after the membership’s kind flatlined within the second-half of the season, with Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at last-placed Heidenheim the ultimate straw.
A fan favorite who spent two seasons on the membership as a participant, Baumgart took over as coach firstly of 2025 and helped Union keep within the Bundesliga with a Thirteenth-placed end.
The coach took Union near the European spots on the finish of 2025 however the membership have gained simply two video games since Christmas and sit seven factors above the relegation play-off spot with 5 video games to play.
“We have had a completely disappointing second-half of the season,” sporting director Horst Held stated in a press release.
“Our state of affairs stays precarious and we desperately want factors to remain within the league.
“The performances in latest weeks do not give us the boldness we might flip issues round with the present set-up.”
As a participant, Eta gained the ladies’s Champions League in 2010 with Turbine Potsdam – she was an unused substitute within the last towards Lyon – together with three Bundesliga titles.
She retired on the age of 26 to start out teaching, first with Werder Bremen youth groups earlier than taking up the same function on the German FA (DFB).
She has already dedicated to take over Union Berlin’s girls’s Bundesliga group, who’re enjoying their first season within the top-flight this marketing campaign, from summer time.
Ladies have managed males’s soccer groups within the decrease divisions however by no means within the high flight.
German third tier Ingolstadt FC are presently coached by Sabrina Wittmann, who grew to become the primary feminine coach of knowledgeable males’s group when appointed to the place in 2024.
French second-flight membership Clermont had been managed by Corinne Diacre for 3 seasons till 2017, till she left to take over the French girls’s nationwide group.
