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All eyes will be on Marie-Louise Eta on Saturday when she makes history as the first female head coach of a men’s team in the German football league, but experts believe the milestone moment should serve as the beginning of long-overdue recognition for women’s leadership skills and abilities in a male-dominated sport.
Eta will be in the limelight when Union Berlin host FC Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, but the trailblazing head coach wants the focus to shift away from her unique achievement and on to the game once the action begins at the Stadion An der Alten Forsterei.
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“I’m looking forward to the match starting and when it’s finally about football,” Eta said in her first pre-match news conference as head coach on Thursday.
“I know this has a social impact and significance,” Eta said, but added: “For me, it’s always been about football, about working with people, and about what I enjoy most: Being as successful as possible together.”
Eta made headlines last week when Berlin entrusted her with the job following the dismissal of Steffen Baumgart, making her the first woman to lead a men’s team in one of the top five European football leagues.
Amid the media frenzy and recognition of her appointment as a breakthrough for women’s role in men’s football, leading voices in women’s football have underlined the need for marking this move as a watershed moment.
“I think the turning point will come when this is not the exception, it’s just accepted,” football expert Yvonne Harrison told Al Jazeera.
“When we look at the experiences of other successful female coaches, in the women’s game in particular, we hear that they don’t want to be the only ones.
“The visibility of successful women in these roles, particularly moving into the men’s game, is something that we haven’t seen a huge amount of.”
Marie-Louise Eta leads a training session [Ralf Hirschberger/AFP]Eta is no stranger to making history. She was the first woman to be named an assistant coach in the Bundesliga in 2023, also with Berlin.
For now, the 34-year-old will take over for the remainder of the season for the 11th-placed team.
While her appointment was widely celebrated, it was followed in equal parts by sexist and derogatory online abuse, which the club Union swiftly denounced.
“We have 100 percent confidence in Loui, with complete conviction. I find it crazy that we have to deal with this in this day and age, that we have to justify ourselves,” Union’s director of men’s professional football, Horst Heldt, said.
Women have been part of the men’s game, taking on various roles despite backlash.
Stephanie Frappart, Salima Mukasanga and Yoshimi Yamashita have led the way by refereeing men’s games for the past few years.
Eta has acknowledged the women paving the path before her, noting she was “far from the first woman working in professional men’s football” while also recognising those who see her appointment as having “a signalling effect”.
However, women seem relegated to administrative roles at the top level more than the technical side, according to Harrison, who is the CEO of Women in Football.
“Women are still massively underrepresented in those decision-making roles, and we know that culturally, particularly within men’s football,” said Harrison, a sport industry executive who has long called for gender inclusivity in football.
She believes that where women were once deliberately kept out of the game some 50-odd years ago, those barriers have been removed, but there are still no clear pathways for them to follow.
Harrison insists a system needs to be in place to help build a conducive environment for women’s progress in professional football.
She called for an overhaul to ensure that appointments like Eta’s are in the mainstream and materialise because of the system and not solely due to an individual’s resilience and determination.
“Men have a responsibility to be able to help create the best and most inclusive environments,” Harrison said, adding that men’s football shouldn’t be seen as the pinnacle of sporting excellence, either.
“I think it’s about finding that balance and helping to nudge that culture of football, particularly within the men’s game, that women being around is completely normal, completely acceptable, and they are contributing as they always have to the success of the game,” she added.
‘A good coach is a good coach regardless of gender’
Harrison, who is a gender equity advocate, also highlighted the lack of visibility of successful women in such roles, particularly in the men’s game.
The United Kingdom-based expert equated “real progress” with a shift in conversation towards understanding that highly competitive environments require the best person for the role, regardless of gender.
Emma Hayes, head coach of the United States women’s national team, echoed a similar sentiment following Eta’s appointment.
“It’s fantastic to see the football world finally waking up to the quality of female coaches. A good coach is a good coach regardless of gender,” the former Chelsea Women manager said.
Eta will be under tight scrutiny as Union play their remaining five games of the season, having won just two games since Christmas and sitting seven points above the relegation playoff spot.
As a player with Turbine Potsdam, Eta won the Champions League in 2010, along with three Bundesliga titles. She has already committed to taking over Union Berlin’s women’s Bundesliga team in a few months.
The initial tug of war between the men’s and women’s sides that Eta was caught between ended when club President Dirk Zingler confirmed that Eta would finish off with the men’s team, before heading to their counterparts and honouring her contract there.
