President of a German soccer club. Pioneer of female coaches It will be her first time in charge of a men’s game in the top division, but Saturday ruled out giving her the job permanently. She says she is acting out of respect for women’s soccer.
Marie-Louise Eta will begin her five-game tenure as interim coach on Saturday when Union Berlin takes on Wolfsburg. Bundesliga Until the end of the season. it’s her first female coach It is in one of Europe’s five major domestic men’s leagues.
However, Eta had previously signed a deal to coach Union’s women’s team from next season, and club president Dirk Zingler wants to stick to that plan. Zingler said viewing her interim role as a five-game audition for the men’s job was a “disservice” to the women’s game.
“If[Eta]is really good, she stays on the men’s side, and if she’s not very good, she goes to the women’s side. That’s not what I’m discussing at all,” Zingler told Sky Sports Germany late on Thursday.
“When it comes to who coaches which teams, decisions are always made by experts based on the facts and if we involve her in this discussion we are doing her and women’s football as a whole a disservice. Marie-Louise Eta will be in charge of five games here and then she will take over the women’s team.”
Zingler appeared to dismiss comments made by Union’s director of men’s professional football, Horst Herdt, who said Eta would not be excluded as a permanent candidate for the men’s national team.
Etta himself said that he was focused on the team’s performance on the field, suggesting that he was not thinking about anything beyond that.
“Next year, I’m still going to be coaching anyway,” she said Thursday.
Etta previously made history as the first female assistant coach in the men’s Bundesliga and coached the Under-19 men’s team at Union.
With five games remaining, Union sit 11th out of 18 Bundesliga teams and are mathematically still unable to escape the threat of relegation. Eta’s predecessor, Steffen Baumgart, was sacked last week after the team had won zero of their last three games and just two of their last 14.
The announcement of Eta, 34,’s appointment sparked sexist and derogatory comments on social media. Labor unions object.
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