{"id":63150,"date":"2026-04-17T14:10:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/63150\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T14:10:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:10:18","slug":"union-berlin-rules-marie-louise-eta-out-of-permanent-mens-coaching-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/63150\/","title":{"rendered":"Union Berlin rules Marie-Louise Eta out of permanent men’s coaching role"},"content":{"rendered":"

The president of the German soccer club where a pioneering female coach<\/a> will take charge of her first top-division men\u2019s game Saturday has ruled out giving her the job on a permanent basis. He says he\u2019s acting out of respect for women\u2019s soccer.<\/p>\n

Marie-Louise Eta is coaching Union Berlin against Wolfsburg on Saturday as she starts a five-game stint as the team\u2019s interim coach in the Bundesliga<\/a> until the end of the season. That will make her the first female coach<\/a> in any of Europe\u2019s five biggest national men\u2019s leagues.<\/p>\n

However, Eta previously signed a contract to coach Union\u2019s women\u2019s team from next season and club president Dirk Zingler wants to stick to that plan. Viewing her interim role as a five-game audition for the men\u2019s job is a \u201cdisservice\u201d to the women\u2019s game, Zingler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf (Eta) is really good, then she stays with the men, and if she\u2019s not so good, she goes to the women, that\u2019s not a discussion I\u2019m having at all,\u201d Zingler told Sky Sport Germany late Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a specialist, fact-based decision about who coaches which team and if we associate her with this discussion, then we\u2019re doing a disservice to her and to women\u2019s soccer as a whole. Marie-Louise Eta will be responsible for five games here and then she will take over the women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zingler seems to be overruling Horst Heldt, Union\u2019s director of men\u2019s professional soccer, who had said he wouldn\u2019t rule Eta out as a candidate for the permanent men\u2019s team role.<\/p>\n

Eta herself has said she\u2019s focusing on the team\u2019s performance on the field and suggested she isn\u2019t looking beyond that. <\/p>\n

\u201cNext year in any case I\u2019ll still be a coach,\u201d she said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Eta previously made history as the first female assistant coach in the men\u2019s Bundesliga and has been coaching the under-19 men\u2019s team at Union. <\/p>\n

With five games to go, Union is 11th in the 18-team Bundesliga and not yet mathematically safe from the threat of relegation. Eta\u2019s predecessor Steffen Baumgart was fired last week with the team having won none of its last three games, and only two of the last 14. <\/p>\n

The announcement of the 34-year-old Eta\u2019s appointment prompted sexist and derogatory comments on social media, leading Union to push back<\/a>.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The president of the German soccer club where a pioneering female coach will take charge of her first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[112,2355,34732,190,25670,32805,133,135,20698,2353,25761],"class_list":{"0":"post-63150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-bundesliga","10":"tag-dirk-zingler","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-horst-heldt","13":"tag-marie-louise-eta","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-steffen-baumgart","17":"tag-union-berlin","18":"tag-vfl-wolfsburg"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116420452457922120","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63150","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=63150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}