Overview
- Union Berlin, which announced the change Sunday after a 3-1 loss to Heidenheim, dismissed Steffen Baumgart and named 34-year-old Marie-Louise Eta interim coach through the season.
- The team sits 11th in the Bundesliga with a seven-point buffer over the drop zone and five games left, and her debut will come against Wolfsburg.
- Sporting director Horst Heldt said two wins in 14 league matches and recent displays offered no sign of improvement, prompting the mid-season switch.
- Eta previously led Union’s under-19s and in 2023 became the Bundesliga’s first female assistant coach with the men’s first team.
- Her appointment is the first of a woman to lead a men’s side in Europe’s top five leagues, with earlier lower-division precedents such as Ingolstadt’s Sabrina Wittmann and Clermont’s Corinne Diacre.