Marie Louise Eta
Photo: IMAGO/Matthias Koch
1. FC Union Berlin was a topic in every news program on Wednesday: because the Bundesliga soccer team, which wants to be so different, announced the separation from Urs Fischer – the coach who had shaped Union into a top club in five years.
But the new assistant coach Marie-Louise Eta has also been mentioned and shown everywhere. If the 32-year-old were to sit on the bench in the home game against FC Augsburg on November 25th, she would make football history. The Dresden native would be the first woman to be an assistant coach on the bench in over 60 years of the Bundesliga. She has previously worked as an assistant coach for the U19s at Union – alongside Marco Grothe, who is now supposed to lead the professionals out of their misery as head coach. The duo is only intended as an interim solution, how long they will stay is uncertain.
In April, Eta was the only woman alongside 16 men to complete her training for a pro license with the German Football Association (DFB). This means she can also work in the men’s division in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga. So far she has worked at Union, Werder Bremen, FC Basel and RB Leipzig. She has repeatedly emphasized in recent years that she wants to go into men’s professional football.
As a player at Turbine Potsdam, under her maiden name Bagehorn, she was part of the squad that became champions three times between 2009 and 2011 and even won the Champions League in 2010. In 2010 she became U20 world champion. In the Bundesliga, Eta also played for Hamburg, Cloppenburg and Bremen.
After her career ended due to injury in 2018, she became a trainer. In Bremen she was responsible for the male U13, U14 and U15 from 2018 and 2022. At the same time, she was part of the DFB coaching staff for the U19, U17 and U15 juniors. She has been employed at Union’s youth performance center since the summer of 2023, now with the professionals – logically.
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