Union’s interim head coach has been given a hospital pass and, despite a vastly improved performance, her team went down to Wolfsburg
S
o different, but absolutely the same. If you had wanted a clear demonstration of why exactly 1. FC Union Berlin was just the place for Marie-Louise Eta to become the first female head coach in a top five European league, you got it on Saturday afternoon. Eta made her debut at the helm in the Bundesliga match with Wolfsburg and after a week in which both she and Union were global news, with coach and club visibly taken aback by the media flocking to Berlin to see her opening press conference and debut in charge, just being able to get to work was a relief.
And there is really no place to ply your trade in Germany, or in Europe, quite like the Stadion An der Alten Försterei. As the team lineups are read out before kick-off there is a call and response, with each player’s name met with the collective reply “Fußballgott!” (Football God). On Saturday, when Eta’s name was announced, it was met with a united “Fußballgöttin!” (Football Goddess). On an extraordinary day, it was touchingly normal.
It was entirely appropriate, then, that Union’s official X account gave sexists and naysayers short (and sometimes quite sweary) shrift at this historic juncture, making sure the moment belonged to Eta and not to the loudest of the morons. Many have suggested that it could only happen at a club this, a club apart; that Union was the perfect place for such a pioneering step as a progressive, socially aware and socially responsible club. Whereas that may ring true to a certain extent female leadership is not a first for German football, with Sabrina Wittmann heading towards the completion of her second season in charge of third-tier Ingolstadt, the club coached by Ralph Hasenhüttl in the top flight a decade ago.
