Union Berlin have appointed Marie-Louise Eta as the first female head coach in the men\u2019s Bundesliga as they bid to ensure its league survival.<\/p>\n
She becomes the first woman to take charge of a men\u2019s team across the top divisions of Europe\u2019s \u201cbig five\u201d football leagues.<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old Eta takes over from Steffen Baumgart, who was fired late Saturday with his assistants Danilo de Souza and Kevin McKenna after the team\u2019s 3-1 loss at last-place Heidenheim, Union announced just before midnight.<\/p>\n
Eta, who was coaching Union\u2019s Under-19 men\u2019s team and agreed earlier this month to take over as coach of Union\u2019s women\u2019s team next season, has five games to secure the K\u00f6penick-based club\u2019s Bundesliga survival.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaying in the Bundesliga is not yet guaranteed given the point-differences in the lower half of the table. I\u2019m happy that the club entrusts me with this challenging task,\u201d Eta told the club website.<\/p>\n
\u201dOne of Union\u2019s strengths has always been our ability to pull together in such situations. And of course I\u2019m convinced that we\u2019ll get the decisive points with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eta already made history with Union in 2023 as the first female assistant coach in the Bundesliga and across the top divisions of the \u201cbig five\u201d leagues. She had to step in for media duties for head coach Nenad Bjelica when he was suspended for three games in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m delighted that Marie Louise Eta has agreed to take on this role on an interim basis before she becomes head coach of the women\u2019s first team as planned in the summer,\u201d Union sporting director Horst Heldt said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Baumgart, a former Union player, was appointed during the 2024-25 winter break but Heldt said recent results prompted the club to take drastic action.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a completely disappointing second half of the season so far and we\u2019re not letting the table fool us \u2014 our situation remains precarious and we desperately need points to secure our place in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defeat in Heidenheim left Union in 11th place in the 18-team division, just seven points clear of St. Pauli in the relegation zone with five rounds remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo wins out of 14 games since the winter break and the performances shown in recent weeks do not give us the confidence that we can turn things around with the current setup. We have therefore decided to make a fresh start,\u201d Heldt said.<\/p>\n
Union next hosts Wolfsburg, which is also fighting for survival, next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Union Berlin have appointed Marie-Louise Eta as the first female head coach in the men\u2019s Bundesliga as they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[112,9176,190,1754,32949,32950],"class_list":{"0":"post-59924","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-fai","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-league-of-ireland","12":"tag-local-soccer","13":"tag-premiership"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116395471303701664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}