It has always been almost unprecendented to have female coaches manage clubs in top-flight football. However, a couple of female coaches have been appointed to manage male teams of a club, and the recent appointment of Marie-Louise Eta to manage Union Berlin, a team that plays in the German Bundesliga is very historic.
On Sunday, April 12, Marie-Louise Eta was named temporary head coach of Union Berlin’s men’s squad for the completion of the current campaign. Her hiring comes after Steffen Baumgart was fired following the team’s loss against FC Heidenheim. Eta’s promotion is significant because she is the first female manager of a men’s team in Bundesliga history.
She worked in the younger ranks before moving up to the senior setup as a member of Union Berlin’s coaching staff for many years.
ENigeria Newspaper has, therefore, gathered names of five female head coaches who have managed male football teams.
From Carolina to Marie-Louise Eta
Carolina Morace (Italy)
Carolina Morace, one of the most well-known women’s football players in Italy, used to be the only female coach of a men’s professional team in Europe.
After managing Serie C club Viterbese in 1999, Morace went on to become a television analyst and the first female coach of a men’s professional squad. She went on to coach the national women’s teams of Trinidad & Tobago, Canada, and Italy.
Morace applied to be the head coach of the England women’s team in 2018, but she later harshly criticized the Football Association’s choice to choose Phil Neville and disputed their claim that there were insufficiently qualified female applicants.
Helena Costa (France)
Helena Costa became the first female manager of a professional men’s football team in France when she took over at Clermont Foot 63, a second-division squad, in 2014.
Before Costa, a Portuguese woman known as “Mourinho in a skirt” after working at Chelsea during José Mourinho’s tenure as manager, quit her job the following month, claiming she was ignored by male coworkers.
In the past, Costa, coached Benefica’s male youth teams, managed Iran’s and Qatar’s women’s national teams, and identified talent for Celtic of the Scottish Premiership.
Corinne Diacre (France)
After the Helena Costa resigned in 2014, Corinne was appointed manager of the club and went on to coach France at the 2019 Women’s World Cup. It was not rosy for her as she only wanted to carry out his duties and receive the same treatment as any other manager.
She was fired from the national team in 2023 due to accusations about the team’s culture that caused division among players and management during her “fraught” tenure.
Sabrina Wittmann (Germany)
Last month, German club Ingolstadt announced Sabrina Wittmann as interim head coach. Wittmann, 34, said she will always strike a balance between acknowledging the obligation of her position as a spokesperson for women in the men’s game and just wanting to be evaluated according to the same standards as the coaches she meets with every week.
When asked about her coaching influences, Wittmann mentions Pep Guardiola for his attention to detail and Jurgen Klopp for his emotional leadership. She even mentions attempting to combine Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel. However, she desires to forge her own route.
Marie-Louise Eta (Germany)
At Union Berlin in the Bundesliga, Marie-Louise Eta becomes the first female head coach in the top five European leagues for men. After the team’s 3-1 defeat at bottom-place Heidenheim on Saturday, Steffen Baumgart and his assistants Danilo de Souza and Kevin McKenna were fired. Eta takes their place.
With the club’s Bundesliga fate still uncertain, Eta assumes temporary leadership for the final five games of the season.
With five games left, Union’s loss in Heidenheim put them in 11th position, seven points ahead of St. Pauli in the relegation zone.
