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Meet the first woman manager in men’s major-league football

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Brighton, UK
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Marie-Louise Eta has been appointed as head coach for one of Germany’s top-tier clubs. 

Women’s sport has come a long way in the past five years. With major victories for the Lionesses and an upswing in attendance at women’s sporting events, the playing field is finally levelling out. But for an industry so deeply entrenched in outdated gender ideals, and framed by income inequality, female wins within the sporting world remain big news. 

Marie-Louise Eta is the latest woman to shatter a major glass ceiling in sport, becoming the first female coach of a major men’s football team. Union Berlin, a top-tier club in Germany’s Bundesliga, appointed her last week. The 34-year-old will be the first woman to take charge of any men’s team across any of Europe’s top five leagues. 

But Eta is no stranger to making history. She’d been working as the club’s assistant coach since 2023, the first woman to occupy the role in Bundesliga’s history. Eta had also established a formidable reputation after coaching the men’s under-19s, making her progression at Union Berlin a logical next step. 

It’s a laser-focused drive and passion for football that has propelled Eta to such prominence – a dedication that brushes off any notion of tokenism. This is a woman who has no interest in being an inspiration simply because of her gender. In an interview three years ago, Eta said she hoped to ‘convince with quality and substance’ over anything else. 

That hasn’t stopped Eta’s success from drawing attention from other women in the industry. Sarina Wiegman, manager of the Lionesses, paid tribute to the new Bundesliga coach at a pre-match press conference last week. 

‘It’s great,’ Wiegman told reporters. ‘She’s a trailblazer. I think this was a matter of time anyway. It’s exciting, it shows that, again, football is moving up. There are women in society everywhere and the next step that it’s also in football, male and female.’ 

For Eta herself, the promotion marks a personal goal and a weighty responsibility. Union Berlin are currently positioned 11th in the 18-team Bundesliga, having only won twice in 14 league matches this year. 

‘I am delighted the club has entrusted me with this challenging task,’ Eta said of her appointment. ‘One of the Union’s strengths has always been, and remains, the ability to pull together in such situations. I am convinced that we will secure crucial points.’ 

While women have previously taken coaching positions within men’s football – Carolina Morace became the first woman to manage a men’s professional team in 1999 when she took charge of Italian third division side Viterbese – Eta is the first to lead a men’s team in one of Europe’s top five leagues.

When she leads Union Berlin against Wolfsburg this weekend, she will be doing so in one of the most commercially powerful, globally scrutinised leagues in the world. For all the language of progress that has defined sport in recent years, this is what it actually looks like.

Eta was handed the role on an interim basis following the sacking of Steffen Baumgart, after a dismal run that saw Union slip dangerously close to relegation. With just five games left in the season, the club needed stability, and Eta – who was already embedded in the team’s structure – was the logical choice.

That she also happens to be a woman is, in many ways, secondary to the fact that she was the best available option.

Of course, the symbolism of her appointment is still hugely significant for women in sport. Football especially has long functioned as a hyper-masculine space, and for decades, the concept of a woman managing a men’s top-flight team has been framed as a novel impossibility.

But Eta is all the more ground-breaking for the fact that she has not emerged as a disruptor from the outside – rather as someone who emerged organically from within the system.

For young women watching, the impact is obvious. For the sport itself, the implications are more profound. Eta’s appointment doesn’t just challenge who belongs in football; it challenges the very criteria by which belonging has been historically defined.

Enjoyed this? Click here for more Gen Z focused change stories.

Senior Remote Writer Brighton, UK

I’m Flo, (She/Her) a Senior Remote Writer at Thred. I recently completed a Masters in Visual Anthropology, and seek to interrogate the ways digital spaces can amplify marginalised voices in the arts and cultural sectors. Follow me on LinkedIn or ping me some feedback via email.

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