Bundesliga side Union Berlin’s appointment of Marie-Louise Eta as interim manager of the club shook the footballing world. Eta is the first woman ever to be appointed as manager of a top 5 men’s football club and marks a monumental moment in the progress of women in football. The 34-year-old is not, however, the first woman to become manager in German football. I would recommend this article from ESPN about Sabrina Wittman, who has become full time manager in the third division of German football at
Ingolstadt FC, to read about how she shattered the proverbial glass ceiling before Eta did so again.
Eta, meanwhile, has been managing in football since she was 23, back in 2014. She started in women’s football with Werder Bremen before joining Union Berlin as assistant coach to interim manager Marco Grote in 2023. That is right, this is not her first stint with the men’s team and she even became the first female assistant coach in the Champions League during this time as Union Berlin reaped the rewards for an incredible run in the 2022/23 season. She dropped back down to coaching men’s youth football after Grote’s interim stint ended. She was coaching the U-19s when Union Berlin made the decision to let go of Steffen Baumgart before the end of the 2025/26 season and appoint her as interim manager.
This is a historical moment that has generated a lot of discussion. This discussion reached Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany, who was asked for his thoughts on the appointment of Eta and the history she made:
“I’m really happy for her,” Vincent Kompany simply stated, as captured by @iMiaSanMia. “It’s always very easy to dismiss these key moments and say she’s just a coach like any other. But ultimately, it’s something quite special. It opens up opportunities for younger women who feel they too can become coaches. It opens doors. I wish her all the best. The only thing at which I hope she won’t be treated like men, is that I hope people show more patience with her than they do with male coaches. Coaching is a job where you’d really like to have more patience.”
For now, Eta will have Union Berlin’s last 5 games of the season to end the season on a high. Though Union are already virtually safe from relegation, their form has been in a real tailspin and it will take a big effort to see those fortunes change. Given she is only in charge for these 5 games before returning to women’s football by coaching Union Berlin’s senior side for the 2026/27 season, one wonders just how much of an impact she can really make.
But her story is far from over. Wittman was supposed to leave her post as manager following just one month in charge the end of the 2023/24 season, but the players asked Ingolstadt’s management to keep her as manager. She has remained the full time manager there for two years now. This is not to say Eta will or should follow the same path. But the future is capable of throwing up big surprises. Who knows what Eta will be doing in a few year’s time?
Regardless of it all, good luck to you, Eta. This writer hopes people will remember that, despite the glass ceilings the 34-year-old is shattering, this is still the story of Marie-Louise Eta, the prodigious young manager who made history and continues to further her promising career, rather than the story of the nameless female coach that made history. Eta is far more than just her achievement.
