<p>The first woman to manage a men’s team in Europe’s major leagues on ‘shouting back’, her coaching influences and fighting the drop</p><p>It was shaping up to be a standard Saturday night of homework for Marie-Louise Eta when the telephone rang and sent her life into overdrive. A nosediving Union Berlin had decided to part ways with their manager, Steffen Baumgart, and had a quick solution in mind. They wanted the talented coach of their under-19 team to step up for the rest of the season and it meant tearing her away from plans to face Mainz’s youngsters the following day.</p><p>“I was at home on my laptop preparing,” she says. “Then our president, Dirk Zingler, called me and said: ‘You’re doing it now. I’m counting on you.’ The call didn’t last long. It wasn’t easy for me to announce in our under-19 group chat that I wouldn’t be able to take the game any more.”</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/apr/22/marie-louise-eta-union-berlin-interview-bundesliga">Continue reading...</a>