It was shaping up to be a standard Saturday night of homework for Marie-Louise Eta when the telephone rang and sent her life into overdrive. A nosediving Union Berlin had decided to part ways with their manager, Steffen Baumgart, and had a quick solution in mind. They wanted the talented coach of their under-19 team to step up for the rest of the season and it meant tearing her away from plans to face Mainz’s youngsters the following day.
“I was at home on my laptop preparing,” she says. “Then our president, Dirk Zingler, called me and said: ‘You’re doing it now. I’m counting on you.’ The call didn’t last long. It wasn’t easy for me to announce in our under-19 group chat that I wouldn’t be able to take the game any more.”
If that level of consideration speaks volumes for Eta, perhaps it is because her appointment to lead the Union Berlin men’s team felt more exceptional to those outside than anyone operating within. Union had asked themselves who fitted the role best: they landed on a brilliant, energetic coaching mind who had overseen Bundesliga games during a previous stint as assistant manager. She had hardly been parachuted in from nowhere to make headlines.
“The crucial question is: ‘Who is the right person for the job?’” Eta says. “In my situation at Union Berlin, I can say I feel trust and conviction. They believe I can keep the team in the Bundesliga. I’m not a PR stunt.”
Nonetheless it was inevitable that Eta, the first woman to be tasked with managing a men’s team in Europe’s major leagues, would draw a crowd. About 50 journalists attended her first press conference, a departure from the usual single-figure gathering. Her name has travelled worldwide and that comes with a paradox: Eta has no wish to be seen as an oddity, but presenting her achievement is a necessary step on the road to normalising it.
“I can understand the interest,” she says, sitting in Union’s Stadion An der Alten Försterei two days after her first game, a 2-1 defeat by Wolfsburg. “I’m aware of what it means societally. It creates a responsibility for me whether I like it or not. My primary goal was never to strengthen the role of women, I’ve always wanted to convince with my performance. I want to be seen as a football coach.”
Even if she has been impatient to crack on with the job, there is a profound understanding that aspiring girls need role models. It is usually harder to be what you cannot see. “I’m happy to inspire others,” she says. “When I receive messages from girls who feel encouraged, it makes me very happy. Visibility is important. Sometimes doors are closed, but there are others that can be opened. As a child, I only had male coaches. I was incredulous when I had my first female coach. I grew up in a male-dominated field.”
That stems from her upbringing in Dresden during the 1990s. Although Eta had two older sisters she proved adept at competing among the boys and cannot forget hearing the cry: “Don’t let a girl outplay you!” She had to develop a rhino hide back then. “But I can defend myself, I can tune it out,” she says. “And I can shout back. It’s not all about gender. In competitive sports, everyone has to prove themselves every day. My biggest critic has always been myself.”
She is certainly more interested in self-appraisal than the grimly inevitable slew of online trolls who offered sexist comments, which the Union director of football, Horst Heldt, described as “insane”, about her step up.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion,” she says. “It usually says more about the person than about me. I view social media with scepticism. Regardless of my own experience, I think it’s right that politicians want to regulate it. I don’t read any of it myself.”
Eta would much rather discuss her playing and coaching influences, who include Xavi Hernández and Pep Guardiola. “A special style of football,” is how she describes that old Barcelona school. “Attacking, technically precise, all of it delivered with flair and creativity.”
Much of her work with the under-19 side fitted that bracket but her adaptability will be tested now: Union have won twice in 15 league games, visit third-placed RB Leipzig on Friday and are getting sucked towards the relegation playoff spot. She has been steeped in the traditionally punchy Union’s rapid rise, which brought Champions League football in 2023-24, and wants to bridge her style with the spirit that brought them unprecedented success.
“You have to know what made you strong,” she says. “Cohesion and discipline propelled Union to the top. After a good first half of the season, we’re currently going through a difficult period. We need to get out of this.
“I was able to observe how the lads had already implemented parts of my playing philosophy and our match plan [against Wolfsburg], or at least tried to. That’s very valuable. Our strength in recent years has been a certain defensive stability. But to win, you also have to create scoring opportunities.”
Eta is expected to oversee the Union women’s team next season, although Heldt complicated the picture last week by saying he could envisage a longer-term arrangement with the men. In practical terms she sees little difference between coaching one or the other. The question constantly running through her mind is: “What does the person standing in front of me need from me to perform at their best?”
She explains: “I’m dealing with individuals. You can say women are more sensitive or men are more vain but for me, those are stereotypes. There are plenty of sensitive men I’ve had to put my arm around. Conversely, there have been women who, as a coach, you need to give a kick up the backside.”
Her story is a tonic of its own and Germany, where Sabrina Wittmann is head coach of third-tier Ingolstadt, seems light years away from other top nations when it comes to representation. “We shouldn’t get too cocky, we still have some catching up to do,” Eta cautions.
If she could speak to the girl who blanked out the boys’ jibes back in Dresden, she would suggest putting her foot on the ball. “Take the moment and enjoy it, and also look back sometimes,” she says. “Don’t always just want faster, higher, further. That’s a weakness of mine. If I’m not careful, I miss the beautiful moments, the ones where I can simply be proud of myself.” This is surely one of them; for now, though, the task in front is everything.