As a player, Eta grew up idolising David Beckham and had a successful career as a midfielder in the women’s Bundesliga.
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.
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.
She joined Union as a youth-team coach later that year and quickly became a popular figure at the club.
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.
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.
A few hours after her appointment Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel said Union “could not have made a better choice”, external as interim coach.
Known to everyone simply as Loui, Eta was the natural choice and her appointment has proved popular among Union’s passionate fanbase.
“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.
“She knows the club and the players really well and is very popular among fans.”
“Loui is our new Iron Lady,” another fan group Ecke Nord wrote, external on social media, a reference to Union’s nickname, ‘the Irons’.
Not all reactions have been supportive, however. This week the club were forced to defend Eta from a wave of sexist abuse on social media.
“I never read the comments in social media,” she said. “They say a lot more about the people who are posting them than they do about anyone else.”
Asked whether she thought the abuse showed that German society was going backwards on gender equality, Eta said she hoped to be a source of inspiration.
“It’s obviously good if it opens doors and maybe shows young women what is possible for them to achieve in any walk of life,” she said.
