As a player, Eta grew up idolising David Beckham and had a successful career as a midfielder in the women’s Bundesliga.<\/p>\n
She represented Germany at youth level and won the Champions League with Turbine Potsdam in 2010 before ending her career early because of injury in 2018.<\/p>\n
When she earned her professional coaching badge in 2023, she was the only woman in a class that also included current Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler and Rangers boss Danny Rohl.<\/p>\n
She joined Union as a youth-team coach later that year and quickly became a popular figure at the club.<\/p>\n
As well as her brief spell with the men in 2024, she also enjoyed success with the under-19s and was part of the coaching staff that led Union’s women team to Bundesliga promotion last season.<\/p>\n
As a result, while it may have turned heads elsewhere, Eta’s appointment came as no surprise in Berlin because she is seen as a safe pair of hands with valuable experience at all levels of the game.<\/p>\n
A few hours after her appointment Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel said Union “could not have made a better choice”, external<\/a> as interim coach.<\/p>\n Known to everyone simply as Loui, Eta was the natural choice and her appointment has proved popular among Union’s passionate fanbase.<\/p>\n “I was really happy and it didn’t surprise me at all,” Cornelia Wolter, a season-ticket holder and member of fan club Grenzenlos Eisern, told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n “She knows the club and the players really well and is very popular among fans.”<\/p>\n “Loui is our new Iron Lady,” another fan group Ecke Nord wrote, external<\/a> on social media, a reference to Union’s nickname, ‘the Irons’.<\/p>\n