Marie-Louise Eta will make history this Saturday when she becomes the first woman to coach a men\u2019s team in any of Europe\u2019s top five leagues, taking charge of Union Berlin against VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga.<\/p>\n
But even before her five-game interim stint begins, club president Dirk Zingler has ruled out the possibility of her taking the men\u2019s job permanently.<\/p>\n
Eta, 34, is set to lead Union for the remainder of the season following the dismissal of Steffen Baumgart, with the club winless in its last three matches and just two victories in 14. Union currently sits 11th in the 18-team table, still not mathematically safe from relegation.<\/p>\n
However, Zingler insisted that Eta\u2019s long-term future remains with the club\u2019s women\u2019s side, in line with a previously signed agreement.<\/p>\n
Framing her interim spell as an audition for the men\u2019s role, he argued, would undermine both her and the women\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she does well and stays with the men, or doesn\u2019t and goes to the women, that\u2019s not a discussion I\u2019m having at all,\u201d Zingler told Sky Sport Germany. \u201cThat would be a disservice to her and to women\u2019s football.\u201d<\/p>\n
His stance appears to contradict sporting director Horst Heldt, who had earlier left the door open for Eta to be considered for the permanent role.<\/p>\n
Eta, for her part, has played down the noise, focusing only on results during her short tenure. \u201cNext year, in any case, I\u2019ll still be a coach,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Already a trailblazer, Eta previously became the first female assistant coach in the Bundesliga and has also worked with Union\u2019s Under-19 men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
Her appointment has drawn widespread attention, including sexist abuse on social media, prompting the club to publicly defend her.<\/p>\n
Published on Apr 17, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marie-Louise Eta will make history this Saturday when she becomes the first woman to coach a men\u2019s team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,846,4877,5346,5529,5526,5524,5528,5525,5531,5527,3911,897,5530,4571,4664],"class_list":{"0":"post-5420","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-bundesliga-history","11":"tag-dirk-zingler","12":"tag-eta-coaching-record","13":"tag-eta-union-berlin-interim-coach","14":"tag-female-coach-mens-football","15":"tag-female-pioneers-football","16":"tag-first-woman-bundesliga-coach","17":"tag-football-gender-barrier","18":"tag-german-football-news","19":"tag-marie-louise-eta","20":"tag-union-berlin","21":"tag-union-berlin-news","22":"tag-union-berlin-vs-wolfsburg","23":"tag-women-in-football-coaching"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}