Marie-Louise Eta has been reflecting on the year in which she became the first woman to lead a men’s team in one of Europe’s big five leagues, and she is clear that history was never the point. The 35-year-old took interim charge of Union Berlin in April following the dismissal of Steffen Baumgart, with a straightforward brief: keep the club in the Bundesliga. She delivered, recording two wins, a draw and two defeats in her five games as Union finished 11th.
It was not the first time she had broken ground. Three years earlier she had become the first woman to serve as an assistant coach in the men’s Bundesliga, and in 2024 she led the Union men’s team for one match. When she was appointed, the Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany described the move as something that could open doors for younger women who want to become coaches.
Trying to take stock of what she calls a momentous 12 months, Eta told Moving the Goalposts: “For me, it was never about being the first. It quickly became clear that it wasn’t about making history, but about supporting a team and achieving success together once again.”
Her gender brought a great deal of media attention, and she says her opening matches were not “just about football at that time, but also very much about the issue of women in the game”. It was, she admits, very intense. Union lost their first two games, against Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig, before a draw with Cologne and a 3-1 victory at Mainz, at the end of which Eta punched the air and joined her players in applauding the travelling fans. She closed her spell in charge with a 4-0 win over Augsburg.
“I wanted to impress through my work, my performance and my approach as a manager, not because I’m a woman or because I’m supposed to represent or embody something special,” she said. “I wanted to be judged by the same standards as my male colleagues.”
The appointment also brought sexist and derogatory abuse on social media, which the club publicly condemned as “embarrassing and insane”. There was plenty of positivity too, and Eta says women and girls messaged her to say her journey had encouraged them. “My hope is that my journey will encourage young girls to believe in their own potential and to pursue their goals,” she said. “If I can play even a small part in opening further doors, I’ll be very pleased. Ultimately, however, it shouldn’t be gender that decides, but performance and the quality of the work.”
Asked what she took from the experience, she pointed to the human side of the job. “It is important to stay true to yourself and remain clear-headed,” she said. “As a coach, it’s not just about tactics and football, but above all about bringing people along with you, giving them confidence and solutions, and helping them develop.”
This season Eta is in charge of the Union women’s side, a move that was always the plan. She wants “to build a team that plays football with courage, energy and intensity” and to “dictate games and be dominant”, adding: “It isn’t just about results and league positions. It’s just as important to me that the players continue to develop, that we improve as a team, and that we play a style of football we can identify with.”
Union have had a difficult start to the campaign, with Bayern Munich first up. They lost that game 4-1 and failed to pick up a point in their first four matches, but have since beaten RB Leipzig, Stuttgart and, in the cup, Magdeburg. Eta began with a 4-4-2 before switching to a 4-3-3 — the formation changed, the ambition did not.
Legacy, she insists, is not something she has ever thought about. “For me, it’s always been about football and working with people to achieve success together as a team.” Whether or not she wants to be a symbol, she cannot control how others see her: for the young girls who wrote to her, she is proof that the boundaries of football have moved.