Union Berlin have made historical past after appointing Marie-Louise Eta as their interim head coach till the tip of the season, making her the primary girl to handle a males’s group in one in all Europe’s high 5 leagues.
Her appointment follows the dismissal of Steffen Baumgart after Union Berlin’s 3–1 defeat away to backside aspect 1. FC Heidenheim on Saturday.
Union Berlin presently sit eleventh within the 18-team Bundesliga desk and are 11 factors away from the automated relegation zone with 5 matches left to play. Nonetheless, they’ve struggled for type in 2026, successful solely two of their final 14 league video games.
Eta, 34, is not any stranger to breaking boundaries. She grew to become the Bundesliga’s first feminine assistant coach in November 2023, additionally at Union Berlin. She later made historical past once more when she took cost from the touchline throughout a 1–0 win over Darmstadt in January 2024 whereas serving as interim coach throughout a suspension for then-manager Nenad Bjelica.
A former Germany youth worldwide and Girls’s Champions League winner with Turbine Potsdam, Eta has been managing Union Berlin’s under-19 aspect since July 2025 and can also be set to grow to be the membership’s ladies’s head coach in the summertime.
Union Berlin’s director of males’s soccer, Horst Heldt, mentioned the choice was taken as a result of poor current outcomes.
“We have now had a vastly disappointing second half of the season and won’t permit ourselves to be blinded by our league place,” he mentioned.
“Our state of affairs stays precarious. The performances proven in current weeks don’t give us confidence that we will flip issues round with the present set-up. We have now subsequently determined to make a recent begin.”
Eta acknowledged the problem forward, with Union solely seven factors above the relegation play-off spot.
“Given the factors hole within the decrease half of the desk, our place within the Bundesliga just isn’t but safe,” she mentioned.
“I’m delighted the membership has entrusted me with this difficult activity. One in every of Union’s strengths has at all times been, and stays, the flexibility to drag collectively in such conditions.
“I’m satisfied that we are going to safe the essential factors.”
