Marie-Louise Eta, 34 years old, was chosen to take over the Union Berlin men’s team on April 11th, after the previous manager, Steffen Baumgart, was fired for the 3-1 loss against Heidenhein.
The goal is to avoid relegation and keep the team in the top division. Eta took charge in the 30th round of the Bundesliga and will coach the team until the end of the 25/26 season, with only five matches remaining in the season.. On the 18th day of April, she debuted as interim coach against Wolfsburg, and last Sunday, May 10th, she earned her first win with Union Berlin, beating Mainz 3-1.
ETA’S CAREER: BREAKING BARRIERS
Born in Dresden, east side of Germany, Eta became a professional soccer player at 17, in Turbine Potsdam. Among her achievements as a defensive midfielder are a UEFA Women’s Champions League title and a German Cup trophy. She played for Hamburger SV, BV Cloppenburg and Werder Bremen, as well as Germany’s youth national team, but due to recurring injuries, Marie-Louise retired at just 26 years old.
Eta officially began her coaching career in 2018, in Werder Bremen’s youth academy staff, just after her retirement. While she was still working at Werner Bremen, she also worked with the Germany women’s U15s and U19s. But in 2023, after she completed the DFB Pro License, the highest coaching qualification in Germany, Union Berlin brought her into the Men’s U19 team as assistant to Marco Grothe’s coaching staff.
However, this year’s accomplishments are not the first time she breaks a paradigm in soccer. It was in November 2023, when the coach Urs Fisher left and Marco Grothe took over the first team, bringing his whole staff, that Marie-Louise became the first woman to be a part of a coaching staff of a Bundesliga men’s team. In 2024, she was also the first woman to temporarily coach a male team in the Bundesliga, replacing Nenad Bjelica, Union Berlin’s coach after Marco Grothe, who was under suspension for three games.
The trendsetter was named manager of the Union Berlin’s U19s team in July 2025 and is already appointed as head coach for the women’s team.
Since Eta was named interim coach, Union Berlin has faced Wolfsburg (lost 2-1), RB Leipzig (lost 3-1), Cologne (tie 2-2) and Mainz (win 3-1). The game’s results left Union Berlin safe from relegation, in 12th position with 36 points. The team’s last game of the season, against Augsburg, will happen on May 16th.
Although Eta’s performance has not been the best, it is important to highlight that women, not just in sports, are often given opportunities in moments of crisis, being expected to solve the problem, and if they don’t, their struggle is reduced to thoughts of “women are incompetent”. In these times, they face greater pressure, both because of the crisis itself and the weight of representing women, what they do or do not do will be treated as a reflection of all women. This results in harsher criticism, commonly gender-based.
THE HISTORY OF EXCLUSION
Even though women’s soccer has significantly grown over the last decade, women remain underrepresented in leadership positions. According to a study by RunRepeat, 72.06% of the head coaches in women’s soccer are male. While in men’s soccer, even though there are other examples of female coaches, such as Corinne Diacre, who managed Clermont Foot in Ligue 2 (French second division) and Hannah Dingley, who coached Forest Green Rovers in ELF League 2 (English third division), only Marie-Louise is in a top league.
This issue goes back to December 5th, 1921, in England, when women were banned from playing soccer by the Football Association, as the organization stated that “the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged”. During the First World War (1914-1918), women’s soccer was so popular in the United Kingdom that it drew more attention than the men’s, attracting crowds as big as 50,000 people, which may have contributed to the 50-year ban.
England, unfortunately, was not the only place soccer was banned for women. Spain, Scotland, France, Canada, Brazil and many others went along. Germany even went a step further, arguing that: “In the fight for the ball, the feminine grace vanishes, body and soul will inevitably suffer harm”.
These decades-long limitations delayed the evolution of women’s soccer. It is unrealistic to expect women’s soccer to reach the same level of development as men’s soccer in the same period of time when, for years, women were told that by simply practicing the sport, their bodies and souls would be compromised. To this day, even without legal bans, the social structure remains more or less strong depending on where, preventing women from freely participating in soccer.
Unstructurised leagues and institutions, lack of investment and visibility given to the cause, disregard to female professionals, and many other aspects are a consequence of leaving women’s soccer on the sideline. On the other hand, some initiatives try to change this reality, such as Brighton’s plan to build an exclusive stadium for their women’s team, affirming that: “[the stadium will] provide a permanent home and identity for the women’s team”, aiming to create a long-term fan growth.
A study made by Durham University (England) in 2022 examined the attitude of 1,950 male soccer fans towards women’s sport. The sub-group of 507 men, who answered particular questions, were divided in three groups: progressive (24%), covert misogynists (8%) and overt misogynists (68%). More than two thirds of the men had openly misogynistic opinions, suggesting women should not participate in the sport at all.
CHANGING THE GAME
The misogynistic views regarding soccer are still very present on the daily basis of not only the athletes and coaching staff, but also of the supporters. Women continue to face sexist comments, harassment and constant questioning of their competence merely because of their gender. Women are still treated as an exception instead of equally capable professionals.
Female soccer players share, in a BBC article, that misogynist comments are often directed at them: “get back to the kitchen”, “women are rubbish they belong in the kitchen”, “you’re not good enough, it’s a men’s game” and “women’s football is so hard to watch it hurts” are just some examples. They also say that: “if you tell a boy you play football [soccer] they’ll give you a quiz” and “they’ll say ‘what’s the offside rule?’ ‘who’s England’s top goal scorer?’”. These comments are the same for staff workers and it directly affects the mental health of the professionals.
We, as a society, have to change the way women are perceived and treated. Misogynistic behaviors cannot be normalised or excused as “soccer culture”. Women’s soccer took a long time to establish itself, and while the sport is still developing, the space for women in leadership positions remains far more limited and still has a long way to go.
That is why including women where there is a visible lack of diversity of gender is so important. The presence of female leadership, especially in a male-dominant field, challenges the deeply outdated stereotypes of female inadequacy. More than increasing representation in the spotlight, we have to encourage structural change to create real and equal opportunities for women. Institutions and influential figures must show support not only through words, but more importantly, through actions.
Marie-Louise Eta’s journey is a symbol to the progress against misogyny, her existence represents the triumph over the years of restrictions of what a woman can or cannot do. She is the first woman to achieve this position, but she is definitely not the last one.
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The article above was edited by Ana Rita Rodrigues Fernandes.
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