{"id":873157,"date":"2026-04-24T00:20:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T00:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873157\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T00:20:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T00:20:31","slug":"marie-louise-eta-hailed-as-a-football-goddess-by-many-yet-sexism-hate-and-misogyny-remain-for-this-soccer-trailblazer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873157\/","title":{"rendered":"Marie-Louise Eta: Hailed as a \u2018football goddess\u2019 by many, yet sexism, hate and misogyny remain for this soccer trailblazer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Berlin, Germany\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Marie-Louise Eta received a typical German welcome at Union Berlin\u2019s Stadion An der Altern F\u00f6rsterei on Saturday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFu\u00dfballg\u00f6ttin!\u201d (\u201cfootball<\/a> goddess\u201d) they bellowed in deafening unison.\n <\/p>\n

\n Eta, 34, was named interim manager of the Bundesliga club last week after the sacking of the under-performing Steffan Baumgart. As a result, her unexpected appointment became a historic milestone as the club smashed through a glass ceiling in men\u2019s professional soccer.\n <\/p>\n

\n In the April 18 match against Wolfsburg, Eta became the first woman to take charge of a men\u2019s soccer team in any of Europe\u2019s top-five leagues (England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain).\n <\/p>\n

\n A few days later, after a rain-soaked Monday training session, \u201cLoui\u201d \u2013 as her players and staff call her \u2013 spoke to CNN Sports<\/a> about her tumultuous week.\n <\/p>\n

\"119027_MarieLouiseEta_ThumbClean.jpg\"<\/p>\n

A \u2018Football Goddess\u2019 now leads the men\u2019s FC Union Berlin\n <\/p>\n

Marie-Louise Eta became a history maker at FC Union Berlin. She\u2019s the first woman to coach a men’s team in any of Europe’s top-five leagues. However, the reception to this hire has been split. CNN’s Sebastian Shukla reports.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A \u2018Football Goddess\u2019 now leads the men\u2019s FC Union Berlin<\/p>\n

1:34<\/p>\n

\n The diminutive but steely Eta said she had looked forward to the weekend. \u201cIt was just about getting it right on the pitch from the start\u2026 I was just happy when it started,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Despite being the better team by all accounts, her first foray in the German top-flight unluckily ended with a 2-1 loss to Die W\u00f6lfe.\n <\/p>\n

Sexism, hate and misogyny<\/p>\n

\"Marie-Louise<\/p>\n

\n The appointment, however, has been widely hailed across the soccer world as a major success.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet, lurking on social media, the appointment unleashed the all-too-familiar torrent of hate, sexism and misogyny. A brief scroll through the comments on various posts by Union\u2019s social media accounts reveal that hate manifesting online. However, the club has been calling out the trolls.\n <\/p>\n

\n One response from Union Berlin said<\/a>: \u201cIs that it? Go back to the kitchen? You\u2019re a disappointment to all the hard working misogynists on here.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Another<\/a>: \u201cNo worries for you then \u2013 she only coaches professional footballers, not sexist trolls.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Eta<\/p>\n

\n When asked about how she has been handling the online abuse, Eta said, \u201cI\u2019m focusing on what I can influence here and that\u2019s the work with the guys on the pitch, the daily football routine. It\u2019s about staying focused and focusing on the thing. That\u2019s what we do every day.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Philipp K\u00f6ster, the founder of Germany\u2019s most popular soccer magazine \u201c11FREUNDE<\/a>\u201d \u2013 11 Friends \u2013 said he was not surprised about the vitriol.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn all social, progressive decisions, there are always people who comment on this appraisal and then let off steam on the Internet. I think it\u2019s important not to pay too much attention to them,\u201d K\u00f6ster told CNN Sports.\n <\/p>\n

Progressive thinking and undisputed ability<\/p>\n

\n K\u00f6ster said Eta\u2019s appointment was very much in keeping with Union Berlin\u2019s progressive policies, but that he was \u201csurprised that they said they trusted her with the role \u2026 to secure Union in the league because it wasn\u2019t previously hinted at.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut at the same time when you look at the competence, it is also quite logical.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Her intelligence and know-how of the Beautiful Game is \u201cundisputed,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe much more important is the question of why football needed so long to be confident for a woman to also train a men\u2019s team. So the questions you have to ask yourself are more embarrassing for football than for Marie-Louise Eta.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Afootball goddess\u201d).” class=”image_large__dam-img image_large__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image_large__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”2000″ width=”3000″ loading=’lazy’\/><\/p>\n

\n The groundbreaking move is also not lost on Eta either. \u201cI know that this has big meaning and certainly also a signal effect on the world,\u201d she told CNN. \u201cI am aware of that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet for her, the aim is clear: \u201cIt\u2019s about getting points and taking care of the football.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n For the handful of hardy fans who braved the torrential rain to watch the team at open training, there is little doubt in her abilities.\n <\/p>\n

\n Dressed head to toe in Union Berlin kit, complete with bucket hat, 22-year-old Simon told CNN that he was happy with the improvements he\u2019s already seen under Eta. \u201cShe needs a bit more time to get the know the guys better and then there will be better results,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n As for the vitriol online: \u201cI don\u2019t see (their) problem. She\u2019s a coach like all the others. She\u2019s doing her job and she will get her wins and then it doesn\u2019t matter if she\u2019s a man or a woman.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet her time at the helm is likely to last only a few games more. Club president Dirk Zingler has said Eta\u2019s appointment is still only temporary, as she is due to take over the women\u2019s squad at Union next season. According to Zingler, it would be doing a \u201cdisservice<\/a>\u201d to women\u2019s soccer to keep her with the men\u2019s team.\n <\/p>\n

\"Eta<\/p>\n

\n For K\u00f6ster, though, there\u2019s still a chance Eta can keep the reins and continue her historic tenure as head coach.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAnything is possible in football \u2026 If the next games are convincing, so inspiring and the euphoria around Eta is big that the fans want it too and there is great support, I can imagine people thinking about it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n For \u201cLoui\u201d though, it is one down, four to go. The team faces a tough fixture Friday against high-flying RB Leipzig before three games against K\u00f6ln, Mainz and Augsburg to close out the season.\n <\/p>\n

\n Though the team can\u2019t finish in the spots for European competition next year, one win would almost certainly secure another campaign in the Bundesliga. Any more than that \u2013 particularly a few wins and impressive soccer \u2013 and maybe we might be seeing more of Eta next year.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Berlin, Germany\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Marie-Louise Eta received a typical German welcome at Union Berlin\u2019s Stadion An der Altern F\u00f6rsterei on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7],"class_list":{"0":"post-873157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116456825705005137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=873157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}